Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed a law on amendments to Uzbekistan's state budget for 2024 on December 24. The document has been published on Lex.uz.
According to the preamble, the changes include additional allocations for various purposes. These include free provision of medications to patients, support for culture and arts, development of family businesses, creation of innovative industrial zones, and organization of the production of high-tech industrial goods.
To fund the new expenditures, the annual limit on external borrowings has been increased from $5 billion to $7.3 billion. Of this amount, $3.2 billion will be directed to cover the budget deficit and $4.1 billion to investment projects.
The maximum net volume of new government bonds is set at 30 trillion soums instead of the initially planned 25 trillion. Additionally, the reserve fund of the Cabinet of Ministers has been increased by more than 1.5 times to 1.42 trillion soums.
The total budget expenditures have increased by 9.94 trillion soums. Approximately one third of this increase (3.46 trillion soums) has been allocated for capital investments in the design and construction of facilities, primarily within the Ministry of Preschool and School Education (3.85 trillion soums), the Ministry of Energy (155.9 billion soums), and the Ministry of Digital Technologies (45 billion soums).
Another 3.18 trillion soums has been spent on current expenses. In particular, the costs of the Ministry of Economic Development and Poverty Reduction have risen by 2.37 trillion soums, mainly due to financing development programs and increasing the authorized capital of banks. The expenses of the Ministry of Agriculture also saw a notable increase (+202.9 billion soums), while most departments experienced slight reductions.
The Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis adopted the amendments on December 3, passing them in three readings within just 9 minutes. However, no public discussions on the increase in state expenditures were held, although the speaker of the lower house, Nuriddin Ismailov, mentioned discussions in committees and factions.
Earlier, Spot reported that S&P predicts further growth in the external trade deficit and national debt in Uzbekistan.