What results have monetary reforms led to?

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.uz) -- Experts from the Institute for Forecasting and Macroeconomic Research (IPMI) have analysed the results of monetary reforms in 2017-2022.

In recent years, monetary policy has been liberalized in our country in a phased manner.

The following key reforms have been implemented in the monetary sphere:

- liberalisation of the foreign exchange policy;

- increase in availability of banking services;

- gradual transition to the inflation targeting regime;

- liberalisation of the banking sector.

Successes achieved as a result of the reforms:

In 2017, the Central Bank of Uzbekistan unified exchange rates and liberalised the foreign exchange market. This led to the creation of a unified exchange rate for the Uzbek soum, facilitating the operations of businesses internationally.

In 2018, the Central Bank Board decided to join the Alliance for Financial Inclusion and implemented a number of reforms. As a result, the number of users of e-banking systems increased 15-fold, credit investments 7.4-fold, bank assets 6.6-fold and deposits raised 5.8-fold.

In 2019, the government announced a five-year inflation targeting strategy, with a target to keep inflation at 4-5 per cent.

Over the years, the banking sector has been liberalised and a healthy competitive environment created, allowing for the privatisation of six large state-owned banks by 2025. For example, 75 per cent of the state stake in Ipoteka Bank was sold to OTP Bank Hungary.

Large-scale digitalisation of the banking system has been implemented. The number of mobile banking applications increased to 21. Digital banks such as TBC Bank, Anorbank started to operate.