Uzbekistan's export of services has become the largest source of revenue — thanks to tourism

Uzbekistan's export of services has taken first place among revenue sources — largely due to tourism

In January-July 2026, Uzbekistan's foreign trade turnover reached 49.5 billion dollars, which is 8.1% more than in the same period last year.

Exports decreased by 3.6% to 19.93 billion dollars, while imports added 17.8% and amounted to 29.6 billion dollars. Due to this, the negative foreign trade balance increased to 9.67 billion dollars against 4.44 billion dollars a year earlier — that is, by approximately 2.2 times.

At the same time, exports of goods excluding gold amounted to 9.8 billion dollars, increasing by 27.7% in annual terms.

China remains Uzbekistan's main trading partner: trade turnover with it in the seven months grew by 33.6% and reached 11.26 billion dollars against 8.43 billion dollars a year earlier. Russia follows with 8.13 billion dollars (+11.8%) and Kazakhstan with 3.27 billion dollars (+24%). China accounted for 22.7% of the country's total foreign trade turnover, Russia for 16.4%, and Kazakhstan for 6.6%.

One of the main reasons for the decline in total exports remains the reduction in supplies of non-monetary gold.

In January-July, Uzbekistan exported gold worth 2.8 billion dollars against 7.59 billion dollars in the same period of 2025. Thus, the volume decreased by 63.1%, or approximately 2.7 times.

The share of gold in total exports shrank from 36.7% to 14.1%.

Against this background, the structure of exports continued to change. The share of services grew from 26.2% to 36.8% (it was 24.1% last year), industrial goods — from 11.3% to 14.4%, chemical products — from 5.6% to 7.8%, and various manufactured goods — from 4.3% to 8.4%.

Based on the results of the seven months, services became the largest export category.

Their volume increased by 35.3% — from 5.42 billion to 7.33 billion dollars. More than half of the export of services — 53.8%, or 3.94 billion dollars — was accounted for by travel (tourism); this indicator grew by 55% compared to the same period last year ($2.5 billion).

Transport services amounted to 2.32 billion dollars (31.7%), telecommunications, computer, and information services — 622 million dollars (8.5%), and other business services — 209.5 million dollars (2.9%).

Exports of industrial goods grew by 22.4% to 2.87 billion dollars. Within this category, supplies of textile yarn, fabrics, and finished products reached 1.15 billion dollars (+26.3%), non-ferrous metals — 1.04 billion (+7.8%), and non-metallic mineral products — 207.7 million (+29.7%). Exports of iron and steel almost doubled to 185.1 million dollars (+91.5%).

Exports of various manufactured goods increased by 89.1% — from 890.4 million to 1.68 billion dollars. In particular, supplies of clothing and accessories grew by 30% to 752.3 million dollars. Exports of other manufactured goods not included in other categories grew 3.2 times to 868.4 million dollars.

Supplies of machinery and transport equipment increased by 34.9% to 757.2 million dollars. Exports of other transport equipment reached 115.7 million dollars and grew by 59.6%, power-generating machinery — 119.4 million dollars (+38.9%), and telecommunications and sound recording equipment — 61.6 million dollars (a 3.5-fold increase). At the same time, car exports decreased by 2.2% to 157.2 million dollars.

Exports of chemicals and related products grew by 35% to 1.56 billion dollars.

Inorganic chemicals made up the main share — 944.8 million dollars (+47.2%). Fertilizer exports increased by 1.4% to 255.3 million dollars, plastics in primary forms — by 25.2% to 167.8 million. Medical and pharmaceutical products worth 39.7 million dollars (+53.6%) were exported.

Exports of food products and live animals amounted to 1.54 billion dollars, increasing by 2.3%. Their share in total exports grew from 7.3% to 7.7%.

In January-July, Uzbekistan exported 1.284 million tons of fruit and vegetable products — 5.5 thousand tons, or 0.4%, more than a year earlier.

However, in monetary terms, exports decreased by 3.9% — from 1.067 billion to 1.025 billion dollars. Fruit and vegetable products accounted for 5.1% of total exports.

Fruit exports in monetary terms decreased from 330.8 million to 308 million dollars (-6.9%), and physical volume — from 290.8 thousand to 251 thousand tons (-13.7%).

Supplies of sweet cherries decreased from 72.5 million to 59.9 million dollars (-17.4%), apricots — from 46.7 million to 32.4 million (-30.6%), and raisins — from 73.3 million to 62.1 million (-15.3%).

At the same time, peach exports grew from 80.5 million to 91.7 million dollars (+13.9%), and grape exports — from 24.9 million to 28.9 million (+16.1%).

Vegetable exports, on the contrary, increased from 165.9 million to 200.5 million dollars (+20.9%). Supplies of onions grew to 89.3 million dollars (+12%), cabbage — to 54.7 million (+12.3%), tomatoes — to 34.4 million (+38.7%), and carrots — to 13.1 million (+63.7%).

Exports of melons and watermelons reached 55.1 million dollars, increasing by 31.5%.

Based on the results of the seven months, exports of textile products amounted to 1.9 billion dollars — 26.6% more than a year earlier.

Textiles accounted for 9.5% of total exports. In the structure of supplies, the main share was occupied by finished textile products — 52.2% and yarn — 31.4%.

Imports of goods grew by 4.1 billion dollars and reached 26 billion dollars, while imports of services reached 3.6 billion dollars.

Machinery and transport equipment remain the largest import category. Their supplies increased by 20% to 9.7 billion dollars, and their share in total imports grew from 32.2% to 32.8%.

Imports of cars and other transport equipment amounted to 2.4 billion dollars (+27.9%). This includes supplies of passenger cars and other motor vehicles designed principally for the transport of passengers, which grew by 73.5% to 920.4 million dollars. Imports of motor vehicle parts and accessories increased by 10.9% to 1.09 billion dollars.

Imports of electrical machinery and equipment grew by 38.1% to 1.59 billion dollars, and power-generating machinery — by 48.2% to 989.7 million dollars. Supplies of telecommunications equipment increased by 87.5% to 1.01 billion dollars.

At the same time, imports of machinery specialized for particular industries decreased by 11% to 1.38 billion dollars, and other transport equipment — by 16.5% to 398.3 million. This includes aircraft supplies, which amounted to 202 million dollars, down by 41.5%.

Among the major categories, supplies of food and live animals continued to grow at the fastest rates.

In January-July, their imports increased by 41.9% — from 2.32 billion to 3.29 billion dollars. The share of food in total imports grew from 9.2% to 11.1%.

Imports of cereals and cereal preparations grew by 60.7% to 864.9 million dollars, meat and meat preparations — by 36.7% to 574 million dollars, and sugar, sugar preparations, and honey — by 51.2% to 434 million.

Supplies of vegetables and fruits increased by 31.9% to 352.8 million dollars, dairy products and birds' eggs — by 32.9% to 244.3 million, and animal feed — by 42.6% to 217.5 million dollars.

Imports of chemical products grew by 15.6% to 3.59 billion dollars. At the same time, supplies of medical and pharmaceutical products decreased slightly — by 0.8% to 1.11 billion dollars, while imports of organic chemicals grew by 43% to 295.2 million.

Imports of mineral fuels, lubricants, and related materials increased by 10.7% to 2.51 billion dollars.

In particular, imports of petroleum and petroleum products amounted to 1.34 billion dollars (+15.1%), and natural and manufactured gas — to 1.01 billion dollars (+8.2%). Imports of liquefied gas (propane) grew 3.6 times to 105.4 million dollars.

Gasoline imports increased in monetary terms by 60.8% to 426 million dollars. Supplies of diesel fuel remained almost unchanged, growing by 1.1% to 163.3 million dollars.

Electricity imports decreased by 17.9% to 55.8 million dollars. At the same time, its exports grew by 30.3% to 134 million dollars.

Imports of services in the seven months amounted to 3.62 billion dollars, increasing by 13.3%. Travel (tourism) accounted for 43.6% of service imports, or 1.58 billion dollars, and transport for 27.4%, or 989.6 million dollars.

China remains the largest source of imports — 9.56 billion dollars, or 32.3% of the total volume. Goods and services worth 5.3 billion dollars were imported from Russia, and 2.4 billion from Kazakhstan. In total, Uzbekistan imported goods and services from more than 160 countries.