Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.uz) — Industrial production in Uzbekistan increased by 8% in January-August 2026 compared with the same period last year, reaching 926.5 trillion soums.
Consumer-sector inflation reached 3.4% over the eight months, while foreign trade turnover increased by 7.6% to US$57.4 billion, according to the National Statistics Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
Manufacturing accounted for 87% of total industrial production. Output in the sector increased by 9.1%, while electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning supply grew by 11.8%. Water supply, sewerage, waste collection and disposal increased by 10.2%.
Within manufacturing, production of other transport equipment increased 1.4 times, while output of leather products, other finished products and basic pharmaceutical products rose 1.3 times.
Tobacco production fell to 88.9% of the level recorded a year earlier, while repair and installation of machinery and equipment declined to 78.9%.
Food prices increased by an average of 1.9% from the beginning of the year, while non-food goods rose by 4.3% and services by 4.7%. Housing services and utility payments, food and non-alcoholic beverages, and transport made the largest contributions to price growth, accounting for 2.33 percentage points, or 68.3% of the total increase in the index.
Insurance and financial services recorded the largest price increase from December 2025, rising to 143.7% of their December level. Education services recorded the smallest increase, reaching 100.6%.
Exports in January-August declined by 3.4% to US$22.9 billion, while imports increased by 16.3% to US$34.5 billion. Goods accounted for 62.6% of exports, with industrial products making up 14.1%.
Machinery and transport equipment accounted for the largest share of imports at 32.6%, followed by industrial goods at 13.9% and chemical products at 12.1%.
Retail trade turnover increased by 18.8% to 370.6 trillion soums. Small businesses accounted for 69.8% of retail sales, large enterprises for 19.9% and unorganized trade for 10.3%.
The volume of market services grew by 17% to 908.6 trillion soums. Growth was driven primarily by trade services, which increased by 16.5%, financial services by 22.5%, accommodation and food services by 14.4%, transport services by 15.9%, and communications and information technology services by 21.2%.
Construction work increased by 11.8% to 259.4 trillion soums. Small enterprises and microfirms accounted for 54.8% of the work, large organizations for 25.7% and the informal sector for 19.5%.
As of 1 September 2026, Uzbekistan had 613,500 operating enterprises and organizations, excluding farms and dehkan farms. Of these, 451,900 were small enterprises and microfirms.
The largest number of enterprises was registered in Tashkent, with 116,818, followed by Tashkent Region with 58,299 and Samarkand Region with 56,529.
A total of 60,500 new enterprises were established during the first eight months of 2026. The number of operating enterprises with foreign capital reached 21,490, including 4,758 joint ventures and 16,732 foreign-owned enterprises.
