Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Flows to Uzbekistan, the region’s largest recipient of remittances, are estimated to decline from US$16.7 billion in 2022 to US$16.1 billion in 2023, the World Bank said.

According to World Bank experts, the share of remittances in GDP will fall from 21% in 2022 to 18% in 2023.

World Bank said that the decline in remittances can be ascribed to a slowdown of money transfers from Russia due to declining number of Uzbek workers in Russia, higher inflation in Russia, and the appreciation of the Uzbek som against the Russian ruble. 

That being said, Uzbek’s remittances in 2023 are still much higher than prewar levels during 2020–21, the bank said. 

Russia remains Uzbekistan’s biggest source of remittances, accounting for about 80 percent of total flows to the country—Russian remittances accounted for only about half of the country’s total in 2019–21, the World Bank noted.