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Uzbekistan`s gold and foreign exchange reserves have reached $72 billion — Central Bank chief
Uzbekistan’s gold and foreign exchange reserves as of September 1 reached $72 billion. This was announced by Central Bank Chairman Timur Ishmetov at the opening of the International Forum on Public Asset Management in Tashkent.
According to him, the current volume of reserves covers the country’s imports for more than a year. In the first half of 2026, Uzbekistan increased its gold holdings by about 50 tons — the second-largest figure among central banks worldwide.
“We are a gold-producing country, and gold traditionally makes up a significant share of our reserves,” the head of the Central Bank noted.
At the same time, the regulator intends to continue diversifying the reserve portfolio by asset classes, currencies, and counterparties. In 2024, the Central Bank purchased U.S. Treasury bonds for the first time, which became one of the steps toward reducing the concentration of reserves in gold.
Ishmetov noted that the Central Bank is systematically building a reserve management system, guided by three principles — safety, liquidity, and profitability. At the same time, the regulator is considering transferring part of the assets to external management so that Central Bank specialists can work together with international professional managers.
“A portfolio can be restructured in a week, an institution cannot,” said the Central Bank chairman, emphasizing the importance of developing human capital and infrastructure at the same time as changing the structure of reserves.
Special attention in the speech was paid to the changing role of gold in global reserves. According to the World Gold Council, 89% of surveyed central banks expect global gold reserves to grow, and 45% plan to increase their own holdings. In addition, three out of four central banks expect the share of the U.S. dollar in global reserves to decline over the next five years.
Against this backdrop, the Central Bank of Uzbekistan is considering several issues related to further reserve management: how high the concentration of a single asset in a sovereign balance sheet can be, how to ensure portfolio resilience, and what the strategic allocation of assets should be under changing familiar relationships between financial instruments.
“We have considerations on each of these points, but there are no ready answers yet,” Ishmetov said.
The first International Forum on Public Asset Management is taking place in Tashkent with the participation of 77 delegates from 35 organizations. According to the Central Bank chief, the asset managers represented at the forum collectively manage more than $36 trillion, while central banks and state institutions manage official reserves of about $3.4 trillion.
The Central Bank chief also said that the regulator is keeping the key rate at 14%. Inflation in Uzbekistan has fallen from almost 10% two years ago to 6.2% and, according to the Central Bank’s plans, should reach the target level of 5% by the end of 2027.
In the first half of 2026, Uzbekistan’s economy grew by 8.5%.
