Page 43 - bneMag February 2021_20210202

bne February 2021 OUTLOOK 2021 I 43
EURASIA / Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan started out 2020 as The Economist’s “Country of the year” as efforts to transform what just four years ago was still basically something like an old-fashioned post-Soviet dictatorship, dismantle trade protectionist policies and develop the beginnings of a free market bore much fruit.
The coronavirus-afflicted year that has just passed obviously proved a setback for the pace of the transformation engineered by Shavkat Mirziyoyev,
the former prime minister who succeeded despot for 27 years Islam Karimov in late 2016, but Uzbekistan’s “Third Renaissance”– as the presidential administration refers to it – is far from derailed.
Despite the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Uzbekistan is still set to achieve growth, amounting to 0.7% in 2020, with a bounceback to
5.0% in 2021, according to the October update of the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook. The country’s finance ministry, meanwhile, remains a tad more optimistic about likely 2020 GDP. The World Bank by its October upate was expecting something similar to the IMF, with Marco Mantovanelli, World Bank country manager for Uzbekistan, saying: “Despite the current challenges, the authorities have reconfirmed their
strong commitment to continue reforms in key sectors of the economy to achieve stronger growth and improve wellbeing of citizens. This is very important to ensure
a more resilient and inclusive post COVID-19 recovery.”
Read the full report here
Armenia
Kazakhstan
Tajikistan
Azerbaijan
Kyrgyzstan
Turkmenistan
Georgia
Mongolia
Uzbekistan
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