Central Asia has emerged as a key region where the convergence of geopolitics and development cooperation is most visible. Major powers are redefining their approaches: Japan combines official development assistance (ODA) with commercial partnerships to advance connectivity and reform; the EU is...

This technical assistance assessed Uzbekistan’s public investment management practices and their climate sensitivity using the Public Investment Management Assessment (PIMA) with the Climate Module (C-PIMA). The assessment found that Uzbekistan has made important progress in strengthening...

Agricultural sector in Uzbekistan is undergoing rapid modernization driven by institutional reforms and mounting pressure to ensure sustainable land and water resource use. This study investigates the adoption and impacts of four sustainable agricultural practices (SAPs) promoted for sustainable...

In this study, we use data from the recent round of the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) to estimate the effect of son preference on reproductive behaviour in Uzbekistan. We find strong evidence of differential stopping and spacing behaviour among Uzbek women. Women are significantly...

The 20th meeting of the CITES Conference of the Parties (CoP20), scheduled to take place in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, in November-December 2025, will offer Parties the chance to assess how the Convention is being implemented, propose ways to enhance its effectiveness, discuss the resources needed...

The 20th meeting of the CITES Conference of the Parties (CoP20), scheduled to take place in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, in November-December 2025, will offer Parties the chance to assess how the Convention is being implemented, propose ways to enhance its effectiveness, discuss the resources needed...

As a dynamic driver of globalization, tourism is a rapidly expanding and highly visible sector in the global economy, playing a substantial role in a country's GDP. In recent years, scholars and policymakers have placed growing emphasis on integrating economic, cultural, social, and...

The Technical Assistance (TA) mission, conducted in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, from August 21 to 31, 2023, assisted the Central Bank of Uzbekistan's (CBU) authorities in developing their stress testing (ST) framework for the banking sector. This TA was the second of a multi-mission TA project...

Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) utilize private sector expertise, risk sharing, management, and financing to improve public investment. However, these benefits also carry risks. Project level risks include poor selection, optimism bias, off-budget financing, and contract renegotiation....

Uzbekistan has made significant progress in its transition to a market economy since 2017, achieving advancements in macroeconomic stabilization, trade and exchange rate liberalization, price liberalization, and small-scale privatization. Despite these successes, challenges remain in reforming...

This inaugural Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) in Uzbekistan took place against the backdrop of a strong and resilient economy undergoing wide-ranging reforms. The main objectives of the authorities' strategy for developing the banking sector are to significantly increase the role of...

Uzbekistan has made remarkable progress in its transition to a market-oriented economy. Far-reaching economic reforms have transformed the economy and spurred capital inflows which, combined with buoyant remittances and favorable commodity prices, have driven robust growth. The authorities...

This Technical Assistance followed a request by the Central Bank of Uzbekistan for a review of their nowcasting and near-term forecasting system. Over the past few years, the central bank has developed a nowcasting and near-term forecasting entirely with their own resources. The Central Bank's...

At the request of the authorities, a joint World Bank-IMF technical assistance (TA) mission visited Tashkent, Uzbekistan during October 9-20, 2023 to help the authorities in developing a mediumterm debt management strategy (MTDS), designing an Annual Borrowing Plan (ABP), and to train the...

The government of Uzbekistan engaged the World Bank and partners to support the development of a National Health System Strategy for Uzbekistan. This document presents a series of interconnected outputs from this process, namely: (i) the Background Papers, eight of which focus on a single...

Uzbekistan's economic story over the past seven years is a captivating one of transition and reform; however, the country is not yet enjoying the full economic returns from these efforts. This report shows how to spur faster growth by improving the functioning of domestic markets and their...

This study explores the socio-economic impacts of ecotourism on local employment and income in the rural areas of Samarkand, Uzbekistan. By surveying 167 participants, including stakeholders involved in ecotourism and local community members, the research investigates the contributions of...

This study investigates the application of Factor-Augmented Vector Autoregression (FAVAR) and Bayesian Vector Autoregression (BVAR) models for inflation forecasting. FAVAR models deal with high-dimensional data by extracting latent factors from extensive macroeconomic indicators, while BVAR...

Central Asian economies, particularly Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, are pursuing increasingly ambitious goals for renewable energy. Apart from China - an established player in the market - it has increasingly been Gulf countries that have been implementing respective projects, particularly Saudi...

The natural rate of interest, often interpreted as the equilibrium real interest rate, serves as a critical benchmark for evaluating the stance of monetary policy. This paper investigates the natural rate of interest in Uzbekistan using three econometric approaches: the HLW-type model1 , a...

In contrast to most Central, Eastern and Southeastern European (CESEE) economies, Central Asia (CA) - comprising Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan - has witnessed quite robust demographic as well as economic growth in the period from 2019 to 2024. This period was...

Forecasting banking system liquidity is crucial for the effective monetary policy implementation. This study investigates the effectiveness of various econometric and machine learning models in predicting the autonomous factors of banking system liquidity. The research compares widely used...

As governments pursue digital transformation to improve service delivery and administrative efficiency, AI chatbots have emerged as a promising innovation in smart public administration. However, their adoption remains limited, particularly in transitioning countries where institutional,...

This study aims to examine the transmission mechanism of monetary policy in Uzbekistan, with a particular focus on the effectiveness and asymmetry of interest rate, exchange rate and credit channels.The analysis employs a vector autoregression with exogenous variables (VARX) model and an...

This paper explores the challenges China faces with regard to its Afghanistan strategy after the US withdrawal in August 2021. Beijing has seen Afghanistan as a strategic asset in relation to China's BRI project, given the country's enormous natural resources which have gone unexploited due to...

Ankara’s role in Central Asia is often assessed through the "Great Game" lens, in which Turkey is supposed to challenge the influence of Russia and China. On the one hand, such a perspective attests to the growing role of Turkey in the region. On the other hand, this view ignores the agency of...

This technical assistance (TA) mission on Government Finance Statistics (GFS) and Public Sector Debt Statistics (PSDS) was conducted in Tashkent, Republic of Uzbekistan during April 1–11, 2025. The primary objective of the mission was to assist the authorities in their efforts to enhance data...

In the context of Uzbekistan’s transition to a market-based economy, the authorities have undertaken several reform measures that strengthened banking supervision. Starting in 2019, a new central bank law enhanced the independence of the Central Bank of Uzbekistan (CBU) and set price and...

The insurance market in Uzbekistan is characterized by its heavy focus of risk management on strategic crops like cotton and wheat and the very close coupling of insurance with agricultural loans. The majority of farmers who received a subsidized production credit from the agricultural bank...

In Zentralasien verfolgen insbesondere Kasachstan und Usbekistan immer ambitioniertere Ziele mit Blick auf erneuerbare Energien. Neben China als etabliertem Akteur sind es vor allem einzelne Golfstaaten, insbesondere Saudi-Arabien, teils auch die Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate (VAE), die...

Der russische Krieg gegen die Ukraine und die geopolitischen Verschiebungen auf dem eurasischen Kontinent haben Zentralasien wieder verstärkt in den Fokus Deutschlands und der EU gerückt. Die strategische Regionalpartnerschaft der Bundesrepublik mit Zentralasien, die im vergangenen Herbst...

Adapting to climate change under different agro-ecologies of Central Asian countries still remains a matter of debate. The present study aimed to explore the perceptions and key factors influencing adaptation strategies through the stepwise appraisal framework in upstream zones of the Zerafshan...

A technical assistance mission assisted the Statistics Agency under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan (SA) in conducting a major revision of national accounts time series. Based on the results of the 2023 survey on non-observed economy (NOE) in hotels, restaurants, and other services,...

A technical assistance mission assisted the Statistics Agency under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan (SA) in conducting a major revision of national accounts time series. Based on the results of the 2023 survey on non-observed economy (NOE) in hotels, restaurants, and other services,...

In Zentralasien verfolgen insbesondere Kasachstan und Usbekistan immer ambitioniertere Ziele mit Blick auf erneuerbare Energien. Neben China als etabliertem Akteur sind es vor allem einzelne Golfstaaten, insbesondere Saudi-Arabien, teils auch die Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate (VAE), die...