Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) - According to the quarterly reviews of the Eurasian Development Bank based on information from 15 international development banks, in 2020, international financial institutions approved financing in Central Asian countries in the amount of more than US$8.3 billion - one and a half times more than in 2019. This is reported by Ranking.kz

Of these, 80.4%, or US$6.7 billion, accounted for sovereign funding, technical assistance and grants. The volume increased 2.1 times over the year, the share also increased significantly (in 2019 the share was 57.4%).

At the same time, the share of financing in the private sector decreased from 42.6% in 2019 to 19.6% in 2020: US$1.6 billion, which is 29.9% less than a year earlier.

By country, Uzbekistan received the largest amount of financing from international development banks in 2020: US$4.3 billion, of which US$3.8 billion fell to sovereign loans, technical assistance and grants, US$512 million - for financing in the private sector. Kazakhstan is next with a volume of financing of US$2.8 billion, of which US$1.8 billion was borrowed from sovereign loans, and another US$1 billion - financing in the private sector.

Financing of international development banks in Tajikistan in 2020 amounted to US$740.9 million, in Kyrgyzstan - US$508.2 million, in Turkmenistan - only US$38.2 million.

Among the international development banks, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved the largest amount of financing in the CA countries - US$2.7 billion; followed by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA) - US$2.1 billion, and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) - US$1.5 billion. These institutions accounted for almost three quarters of the total funding.

Almost the entire volume of funds from ADB, IBRD / IDA and AIIB fell on sovereign financing, the share of institutions amounted to 92.7%.

The largest volume of financing in the private sector came from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) - US$881.2 million, followed by the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) - US$598.4 million and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) - US$120.5 million. The share of these financial institutions amounted to 97.8% of the total volume of investment and project financing.

Among the CA countries, just over half of the amount of approved financing from international development banks is accounted for only by Uzbekistan, and another third - by Kazakhstan.

The volume of financing in Uzbekistan increased by 76.7% over the year, while in Kazakhstan - by 35.4%. At the same time, sovereign financing, technical assistance and grants in Uzbekistan increased by 64.7%, and in Kazakhstan - from US$1 million immediately to US$1.8 billion. At the same time, financing in the private sector in Kazakhstan decreased by 2 times, while in Uzbekistan, on the contrary, it increased by 3.8 times.

The largest international development institutions that approved financing in Uzbekistan in 2020 were the IBRD / IDA: US$1.6 billion, of which US$500 million each went to the Agricultural Modernization project and a sovereign loan under the project to support development policy. Next comes ADB with US$1.3 billion, of which US$500 million to help mitigate the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In turn, the largest development banks that approved financing in Kazakhstan were ADB (US$1 billion) and AIIB (US$750 million). ADB provided funding to mitigate the social, economic and health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the AIIB approved a loan to provide budgetary support to mitigate the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.