Uzbekistan's industrial production increases by 6% in 2023

Experts from the Institute of Macroeconomic and Regional Research (IMRI) analyzed the main factors of industrial growth achieved in 2023, Azernews reports, citing Uzdaily news agency.

Industrial production by the end of 2023 increased by 6%, achieving positive growth rates in all key sectors.

The intensity of industrial growth was higher than in 2022 by 0.8 percentage points. In the structure of GDP, the share of industry was 26.1%, holding the second position in terms of value added after the service sector.

The best dynamics of structural changes were demonstrated by the manufacturing industry, which acted as the main driver of industrial growth. The output of manufacturing products increased by 6.7%, exceeding the average value of the growth index for the industry as a whole - by 0.7 percentage points. This made it possible to increase its share in the industrial structure - up to 84.4% (+1.2 percentage points).

The intensive development of the manufacturing industry was based on trends in the rapid development of production in such industries as oil refining - 27.1%, metallurgy - 6.4%, construction materials industry - 11.3%. Moreover, the growth rate of production in these industries significantly exceeded the levels of last year.

More than half (53.4%) of the increase in industrial output was provided by industries focused on the production of engineering products - 7.4%, textile products and clothing - 7.2%, food products, drinks and tobacco products - 5.9%.

One of the factors of industrial development was the positive trend of increasing production volumes of consumer products - 7.3%, although the intensity index of their growth slowed down somewhat when compared with the previous period, including due to an increase in the volume of competing imports.

In the regional ranking, the largest share of consumer goods in the volume of output was formed in the Andijan region (27.3% of the total volume), Tashkent city (20.8%), Tashkent region (11.9%). In other regions, large reserves remain for further expansion of consumer products.

A comparative analysis of the activities of enterprises with foreign investment showed that their greatest contribution to industrial production was observed in such regions as the Republic of Karakalpakstan (51.1%), Samarkand region (42.3%), Tashkent city (30.2%), Ferghana region (25.4%). In other regions, this figure ranged from 5.7% to 19.7%, and for industry as a whole – 21.7%, which is -3.3 percentage points lower than last year.

Positive indicators of production growth were achieved in electricity supply - 9.7%, which was one of the best indicators in industrial sectors. In the mining industry, the growth rate was 1%, the prospects of which will be determined by the effectiveness of the implementation of priority mining projects.

A feature of the analyzed period was a noticeable tendency to slow down the rate of increase in losses and mutual non-payments, as a result of which the risks of non-repayment of loan debts were much lower than in the previous period.

Despite all the difficulties of the analyzed period, there was a gradual transition of enterprises to the stage of adaptation to new energy tariffs, which became possible thanks to the measures taken to reduce production costs.

The system of measures for the current period is aimed at:
further improvement of conditions for significant growth of added value of industry in the structure of GDP
reduction of costs to maintain competitive prices for manufactured products in order to maintain positions in the domestic and foreign markets.