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By Trend

The World Bank (WB) plans to provide Uzbek Government with an additional $500 million to support the budget, Trend reports via RIA Novosti.

WB Board of Directors intends to consider the issue of providing a new loan in May this year.

Uzbek Senate in December 2018 approved the state budget for 2019 with a deficit of 1.1 percent of GDP, or 4.5 trillion soums (about $540 million). The revenue part of the budget is planned to provide 24.2 percent of GDP, or 102.6 trillion soums (about $12.4 billion); expenses are planned to be 25.3 percent of GDP, or 107.4 trillion soums ($12.9 billion).

Uzbek Ministry of Finance reports state that to cover the state budget deficit, in addition to domestic sources, loans of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank will be attracted for the first time.

The ministry's forecasts underline that the budget deficit is planned to be reduced to 0.1 percent of GDP in 2020-2021.

In July 2018, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance of Uzbekistan Jamshid Kuchkarov told reporters that the World Bank and ADB provided the country with $800 million in budget support to prevent its deficit from growing in the short term. In particular, the WB allocated $500 million and ADB provided $300 million.

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