Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) - According to the State Statistics Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the gross domestic product (GDP) of the Republic of Uzbekistan in January-September 2019 at current prices amounted to 361.85 trillion soums and increased compared to January-September 2018 in real terms by 5.7%.

According to preliminary estimates of key macroeconomic indicators at the end of 2019, it is expected that real GDP growth will accelerate to 5.5% compared with 5.1% in 2018, with a nominal GDP of 524 trillion soums (US$58.3 billion).

The annual inflation rate, measured on the basis of the CPI, is forecasted to be 15.5% at the end of 2019 (14.3% in 2018), and the GDP deflator relative to prices should be 118.0%. Gold and foreign exchange reserves are projected to reach US$27.7 billion (US$26.4 billion in 2018). External public debt is expected to be in the range of US$15.0 billion or 25.8% of GDP (US$9.8 billion or 19.8% of GDP in 2018).

GDP per capita made up 10. 8 millions soums in real terms for January-September 2019 and, compared with the corresponding period of last year, increased by 3.7%. It is expected that at the end of 2019, GDP per capita will be 15.9 million soums, which is 2.9% more than in the previous year.

The growth in real GDP is primarily due to internal factors - a substantial increase in such components of aggregate demand as gross investment and government spending due to:

It is expected that from the side of aggregate supply, real GDP growth will be supported by a significant increase in production in the construction sector (growth by 11.8%), industry (6.4%), services (6.1%) and agriculture (3, 0%).

According to the results of 9 months of 2019, an increase in added value by 7.0% is observed in the industry. Positive dynamics in this industry was ensured due to an increase in gross value added of the manufacturing industry - by 8.9%. It should be noted that the increase in GVA of the mining industry and quarrying amounted to only 1.9%, while that of other industries was only about 1.6%.

In the manufacturing industry, the share of production of motor vehicles, trailers, semi-trailers and other transport equipment amounted to 5.7%, electrical equipment - 2.5%, which is extremely low due to the high cost of these goods due to the high component of imported components and the lack of competition among manufacturers.

According to the results of January-September 2019, agriculture, forestry and fisheries showed a sluggish pace.