“It is being used purposefully”: The President of Uzbekistan responded to concerns about foreign debt

The amount of Uzbekistan’s foreign debt is within the law. All of it is being used purposefully and will be returned on time.  This was stated by the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoev, during a visit to the Sergeli and Yangihayat districts of Tashkent on 18 February, the newspaper "Xalq so’z” (People’s word) reports.

«I see a lot of criticism on social media and in various speeches, because of an increase in our foreign debt. Criticism is acceptable, but only if it is justified. Let’s just take the example of the Sergeli District, if we hadn’t raised the necessary resources, could we have implemented a $500 million subway project? Can we do that much construction quickly? So many people are homeless now, and thousands of our people are using the subway. We are building factories and creating jobs. External debt serves the well-being of our people. The most important thing is that the amount of external debt is within the law. External debt is also not given to all countries: they give it to us because they have confidence in us.  Everything is used for the correct purpose and it is returned on time. We have a much smaller external debt than other countries», the head of the State said.

It should be noted that the balance of Uzbekistan’s public debt as of 1 October 2021 amounted to $25.3 billion.

Despite rising, total public debt remains at a safe level for macroeconomic stability.

On the report of the Ministry of Finance, total public debt of Uzbekistan is expected to reach $33.5 billion by 2022.