Uzbekistan increased gas and gasoline imports over the nine months of 2026 while exports declined

Turnover grew, but the structure of trade shifted

Uzbekistan's foreign trade turnover in January–September 2026 reached $65.4 billion, up 6.3% compared with the same period last year. Daryo.uz cites data from the National Statistics Committee. Behind the identical turnover growth lie opposing processes: exports fell by 5.5% to $25.8 billion, while imports rose by 15.7% to $39.6 billion. Thus, the trade balance for the nine months showed a notable negative balance of $13.8 billion.

Exports are held up by services, gold loses its role

Excluding gold, exports of goods, on the contrary, grew by 31.6% to $13.3 billion. The largest export item was services — $9.7 billion (+31.1%), accounting for about 37.6% of total exports; the main revenues came from tourism services ($5.33 billion) and transport ($2.9 billion). Exports of industrial products increased by 27.6% to $3.8 billion, and food products and live animals to $1.98 billion. Gas worth $357.9 million and electricity worth $145.8 million were also supplied abroad. At the same time, gold sales fell 3.5-fold to $2.8 billion: it was this decline, as the outlet notes, that was previously cited as the reason for the overall drop in exports.

Imports: machinery, fuel and food

The largest import item remained machinery and transport equipment — $12.85 billion, or 32.5% of purchases; purchases of passenger cars grew by 26.4% to $3.22 billion. They are followed by industrial products ($5.75 billion), services ($5.15 billion) and chemical substances ($4.8 billion). Imports of mineral fuel increased by 21.6% to $3.36 billion, with purchases of natural gas up 49.9% to $1.6 billion and gasoline up 33.6% to $454 million. Food purchases also grew noticeably: imports of meat and meat products increased by 32.2% to $779.3 million, and sugar and confectionery by 35.9% to $521.2 million.

Who remains the main partner

China remains Uzbekistan's largest trading partner: trade turnover over the nine months exceeded $15.16 billion. It is followed by Russia ($10.5 billion), Kazakhstan ($4.25 billion), Turkey ($2.24 billion) and Afghanistan ($1.6 billion). A comparison of the two parts of the statistics shows that the growth in turnover was driven mainly by imports — from fuel to food — while the export base shifted from gold to services and industrial products.