August confirms soum remains volatile against the dollar

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.uz) — The Uzbek soum was trading slightly weaker against the US dollar on 27 August 2026 than a week earlier, with the dollar quoted at 11,800 soums on the market. This represents a 0.12% decline in the soum since the previous review, according to Alpari analyst Anna Bodrova. A week earlier, the soum had strengthened by 1.21%, following a 0.39% decline, making August a highly uneven month for the Uzbek currency.

Remittances to Uzbekistan continue to grow while becoming more diversified. Individuals received US$9.3 billion from abroad in the first half of 2026, up 13% from a year earlier. Although Russia remains the main destination for Uzbek labor migrants, inflows from other countries are growing faster.

Remittances from European Union countries increased by 27% to US$319 million, while inflows from the United Kingdom rose 62% to US$144 million and those from the United States grew 19% to US$372 million. Transfers from Kazakhstan increased 28% to US$469 million, while inflows from South Korea and Türkiye rose by about 14%.

The Central Bank of Uzbekistan links the trend to the expanding geography of labor migration. About 258,000 Uzbek citizens are already working in European countries.

For the soum, the growth in remittances is a positive factor. Increased foreign-currency inflows support the supply of currency on the domestic market and thereby limit pressure on the national currency. Another benefit is the gradual reduction in dependence on a single source: a broader geographic distribution of inflows makes this source of foreign currency more resilient to economic and exchange-rate fluctuations in individual countries.

The dollar/soum pair is expected to trade within a range of 11,750-12,000 soums during the final days of August and early September, according to Bodrova.

Anna Bodrova,
Alpari analyst