Uzbekistan experienced a 3.7-fold increase in social spending over the past five years, Obid Khakimov, director of the Centre for Economic Research and Reform (CERR) reports. Between 2022 and 2024, the Makhallabai programme facilitated microcredits for 1 mn Uzbek citizens to support family entrepreneurship projects. Additionally, 152,000 citizens benefited from subsidies provided under this initiative.
Initiatives such as the ‘women's notebook’ and ‘iron notebook’ programmes were implemented to support 1.5 mn women and 610,000 individuals in need.
Since early 2021, Uzbekistan's poverty rate dropped from 17% to 11%, resulting in 2 mn individuals being lifted out of poverty. Khakimov emphasized Uzbekistan's goal to eliminate poverty within the next six years.
Earlier, the World Bank reported an increase in economic inequality in Uzbekistan. Their analysis indicates that the incomes of the poorest 10% of Uzbek citizens grew by 6%, while those of the wealthiest increased by more than 30%. Despite this inequality, the poverty rate in Uzbekistan fell from 36% in 2015 to 17% in 2022. Experts from the financial institutions project that Uzbekistan could achieve the status of a high-middle-income country by 2030.
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