Uzbekistan has increased its gas import by 7 times. The budget deficit reached 5.7%

In the first half of the year, after the import of natural gas increased by 7.2 times, the expenses of the consolidated budget exceeded the revenues by 27 trillion soums. This deficit was mainly covered by last year's balance of funds and borrowing.
In the first half of 2023, the revenues of the consolidated budget of the Republic of Uzbekistan amounted to 153.8 trillion soums, and the expenses amounted to 180.8 trillion soums.

The consolidated budget deficit amounted to 26.9 trillion soums or 5.7% of the gross domestic product (470 trillion soums).

This is mentioned in the report on the implementation of the State budget and the budgets of state special funds for the first half of 2023, published by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. For information, this year's budget law states that the consolidated annual deficit should not exceed 3 percent.

According to the IMV report, despite the fact that the volume of natural gas production in the country is 23.6 billion cubic meters, it has decreased by 9.6% compared to the corresponding period of last year, in order to provide the population and economic sectors with continuous natural gas. the volume of gas import is 2.6 billion cubic meters (364 million cubic meters in 2022), which has increased by 7.2 times compared to the same period last year.

This data on natural gas imports contradicts the official figures of the Statistics Agency. According to the agency, in the first half of 2023, Uzbekistan imported gas worth 200 million dollars, which was 2.6 times more than in the corresponding period of the previous year. Although the Statistics Agency shows the volume of imports in terms of price, and the Ministry of Economy and Finance shows the volume of imports in terms of physical volume, several times the discrepancy between them is clearly visible.

We remind you that anomalous cold weather was observed throughout the republic in January, and the government had to take measures to urgently import natural gas to mitigate its consequences. Chairman of the Central Bank Mamarizo Nurmurodov said earlier that the sharp increase in the budget deficit is due to the increase in gas imports.

It is known that the deficit of 26.9 trillion soums in the consolidated budget was financed from the following sources:

6.7 trillion soums due to attracting state debt funds (including 1.7 trillion soums due to external debt funds, 5.0 trillion soums due to placement of state securities on the domestic market);
1.5 trillion soums from the proceeds from the privatization of state assets;
4.2 trillion soums of preferential loans from international financial institutions for the implementation of state programs;
14.5 trillion soums at the beginning of the year from the balance of the state budget, state special funds, the Reconstruction and Development Fund and extra-budgetary funds.
In the first half of the year (excluding interbudgetary transfers):

state budget revenues are 102.3 trillion soums (+11.1% compared to the first half of 2022), expenses are 116.8 trillion soums (+24.6%);
revenues of state trust funds are 25.9 trillion soums, expenses are 34.95 trillion soums;
Receipts of the Recovery and Development Fund are 4.8 trillion soums, expenditures are 7.9 trillion soums;
Inflows to extra-budgetary funds of budget organizations are 20.9 trillion soums, outflows are 16.96 trillion soums;
expenses for state programs due to foreign debt amounted to 4.2 trillion soums.
During the reporting period, the cost of extinguishing the state debt reached 9.1 trillion soums.

74.6 percent of the state budget revenues were formed by the Tax Committee, 23.7 percent by the Customs Committee. Tax revenues increased by 7.4% compared to the same period last year.

GDP, inflation and personal income

According to the ministry, in the first half of 2023, the volume of the gross domestic product at current prices was 469,619 billion soums, or the growth rate was 5.6% (the forecast at the beginning of the year was 5.2%).

In this regard, the main driver of economic growth is the service sector, the growth rate of which compared to the corresponding period of last year was 6.4 percent (contribution to growth - 2.6 percent of employment). Also, industry grew by 5.6 percent (1.4 percent), construction - by 4.8 percent (0.3 percent), and agriculture by 3.8 percent (0.7 percent).

In the 6 months of this year, the consumer price index (INI) was 3.5% (2021 - 4.4%, 2022 - 6.5%), in which food - 4.1%, non-food - food - 3.1 percent and services - 2.9 percent. From non-food products, the price of medicines increased by 6.5 percent, household detergents and cleaning products - 5.4 percent, cement - 4.6 percent, basic household goods and electrical appliances - 3.5 percent, methane and propane prices increased by 3.2 percent and 3 percent, respectively, while gasoline prices decreased by 3 percent.

The final consumption of 2023 increased by 6.9%, while the real income of the population increased by 6.5%, and the total income per capita amounted to 9.3 million soums.

Source: Kun.uz