About Uzbek Soum (UZS)

In November 1993 Uzbekistan issued a temporary currency, the soum-coupon, to replace the Russian ruble. In July 1994 an official currency, the Uzbek Soum (UZS), was issued.

At the end of 1996, the government instituted currency convertibility restrictions which have resulted in widely divergent official and market exchange rates: the average soum/dollar rate in 1997 was 79.3 at the Central Bank and 177.5 on the parallel market. The IMF's standby facility was suspended in October 1996 due primarily to the restrictions on currency convertibility. Uzbekistan has a strong tax collections system but has had some difficulty in controlling expenditures, estimated at 34% of GDP in 1997. While the government succeeded in reducing its budget deficit from 10.4% of GDP in 1993 to 4.1% in 1995, the deficit ballooned to 7.3% in 1996. Renewed austerity brought the deficit to an estimated 3.9% of GDP in 1997, although much government spending remains off-budget. External debt has grown rapidly but remains modest at about $2.3 billion, and debt/GDP has declined since 1994. Debt service/exports was 14.4% at year-end 1997.