China is catching up with Russia in becoming the main supplier. How Uzbekistan’s foreign trade has changed in 2022

Russia has strengthened as the leading trading partner of Uzbekistan, while China remained in second place but took over the leadership from the Russian Federation in terms of imports. At the same time, the Russian market has become more attractive for Uzbek exporters, while supplies to Turkey have fallen sharply.

In 2022, Russia strengthened as the leading trading partner of Uzbekistan, according to the data of the Statistics Agency under the President.

 

Dynamics of major partner countries in the foreign trade turnover of Uzbekistan (for January-December 2022, million US dollars). Source: Statistical agency.

Trade with Russia increased by 22.9% to $9.28 billion. The volume of exports to the Russian Federation increased by 46.8% (in 2021, the growth was 33.4%) to $3.07 billion, while imports increased by 13.7% to $ 6.2 billion.

China remained in second place with a trade turnover of $8.92 billion (+19.7%), exports – of $2.5 billion, and imports – of $6.4 billion. Next comes Kazakhstan – $4.6 billion, Turkey – $3.22 billion and the Republic of Korea – $2.3 billion (4.8%).

Top nine countries with the most significant trade turnover with Uzbekistan (2022, million dollars)

No.	Countries/share by years	2019	2020	2021	2022
1	Russia	15.7	15.5	17.9	18.6
2	China	18.1	17.7	17.7	17.8
3	Kazakhstan	8	8.3	9.3	9.2
four	Turkey	6	5.8	8.1	6.4
five	The Republic of Korea	6.5	5.9	4.5	4.7
6	Kyrgyzstan	2	2.5	2.3	2.5
7	Germany	2.3	2.3	1.8	2.3
8	Turkmenistan	1.3	1.5	2.1	1.9
nine	Afghanistan	1.5	2.1	1.5	1.5

While the growth of trade with Kazakhstan slowed down (and the share decreased by 9.3% to 9.2%), if the indicator for the same period in 2021 increased by 30.4%, this year it is only by 17.8%. %.

Foreign trade with Turkey began to fall: if last year the indicator increased by 61.9%, then this year the decrease was 5.5%, mainly due to the fall in Uzbek exports (the share decreased from 8.1% to 6.7%) . This may be due to the devaluation of the lira and problems with logistics.

Trade relations with the Republic of Korea after falling in 2021 (-11.7%) increased by 23.2% due to the growth of Korean exports.

Trade with Kyrgyzstan increased by 32.1% ($1.26 billion), with Turkmenistan  – 2.7% ($926.3 million), Tajikistan  – 11.3% ($674.4 million), Afghanistan  – 12.8% ( $759.9 million). With the latter country, performance has improved, but it is still lower than in 2020.

Uzbekistan is increasingly expanding trade relations with the CIS countries. Due to the decrease in trade turnover with other foreign countries, the share of the Commonwealth states increased to 38.4% (was 37.8%). Dependence on export markets in the CIS also increased from 32.6% to 40.7%, mainly due to Russia.

Share of six major partner countries in exports of goods and services

No.	Countries/share by years	2019	2020	2021	2022
1	Russia	13.9	9.7	12.4	15.9
2	China	14.1	12.8	15.2	13
3	Turkey	6.7	6.7	10.2	7.8
four	Kazakhstan	8	6	7.1	7.1
five	Kyrgyzstan	3.8	five	4.8	5.1
6	Afghanistan	3.4	5.1	3.9	3.9

The Russian market has become more attractive for Uzbek exporters due to the withdrawal of Western companies. Exports to China decreased slightly (0.4%), but to Turkey fell immediately by 10.9%.

At the same time, Uzbekistan became less dependent on imports from the CIS (decrease from 41.1% to 36.9%) due to an increase in supplies from China (an increase of $1.48 billion or 30%), the Republic of Korea (+24.5 %) and other countries.

Share of seven major partner countries in imports of goods and services

No.	Countries/share by years	2019	2020	2021	2022
1	China	21	21.3	19.3	20.9
2	Russia	17	19.7	21.4	20.2
3	Kazakhstan	8	10	10.8	10.6
four	The Republic of Korea	eleven	9.9	7.2	7.5
five	Turkey	5.4	5.1	6.7	5.6
6	Germany	3.8	3.6	2.7	3.5

At the end of 2022, the volume of machinery and transport equipment increased by 16.9% to $9.65 billion in the structure of imports. The share in total imports amounted to 31.4% (32.4%)

Most of the supply of these goods to the country falls on China  – $3.64 billion (37.8% share), the Republic of Korea  – $1.55 billion (16%) and Turkey  – $726.9 million (7.5%). At the same time, Russia fell from 3rd to 5th among equipment suppliers (the share decreased from 10.8% to 6.5%).

The import of manufactured goods increased by 22% and reached $5.76 billion. The share in total imports amounted to 18.8% (18.5%).

Manufactured goods are imported from Russia  – $2.44 billion (42.3%), China  – $1.26 billion (21.9%) and Kazakhstan  – $721.5 million (12.5%).

 

Source: gazeta.uz