Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

The World Bank has forecasted a 7.5 percent growth in Uzbekistan's gross domestic product for 2013 compared to 8.2 percent for 2012, the bank's "Global Economic Prospects" report released on Wednesday said, according to Trend news agency.

In 2014 in 2015, growth in the Uzbek economy is expected to be 7 percent and 6.8 percent respectively, according to the report.

The report says Uzbekistan's high rate of economic growth will be supported by a large government capital investment program and relatively stable prices on the country's main export products - cotton, gas and gold.

Uzbekistan joined the World Bank in 1992. Since 1995, the bank has provided loans worth $1.46 billion to the country for projects in the areas of privatization, financial sector development, modernization of agriculture, energy, improvement of social infrastructure, health and education.

According to the strategy of partnership with Uzbekistan for 2012-2015 approved by the World Bank, the bank intends to provide financial assistance to the country in the implementation of 15 investment projects in the energy, transport, irrigation, petrochemical, textile and agro-processing sectors and in improving the quality of medical services for a total of $1.3 billion.

As for economic growth in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan's neighbor in Central Asia, the World Bank has projected 8.5 percent growth of the country's GDP in 2013.

The figure is expected to go down to 7.5 percent in 2014 and 3.5 percent in 2015, the report said.

In 2012, the GDP growth in Kyrgyzstan was one percent, according to the World Bank.

Since 1992, the World Bank has been a leading development partner of Kyrgyzstan with commitments of $1.089 billion in the form of grants and credits.

Worldwide, the World Bank estimated that the GDP grew 2.3 percent in 2012, compared with last June's projection of 2.5 percent.

GDP growth in the European and Central Asian region is expected to rebound to 3.6 percent in 2013 and make up 4.3 percent by 2015.

"Four years after the onset of the global financial crisis, the world economy remains fragile and growth in high-income countries is weak. Developing countries need to focus on raising the growth potential of their economies," the World Bank report concluded.