Uzbekistan's economic growth slowed slightly last year to 9 percent, propped up by strong expansion in the service sector and in industrial output, the government said in a statement on Saturday. "Industrial production grew by 12.7 percent, agricultural production by 4.5 percent, construction works by 8.3 percent and service sector by 21.3 percent," the government said on its Web site, www.gov.uz, citing a report made by President Islam Karimov to a cabinet meeting on Friday.
"The state budget was implemented with a surplus and the inflation rate was within the forecast." The GDP figure was in line with forecasts from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which sees Uzbek growth slowing to 5 percent this year.
"To neutralise the consequences of the world financial crisis, the country has been implementing the special program, aimed at supporting the basic sectors, increasing the banks' capitalisation, developing industrial and social infrastructure and creation of new workplaces," the Web site statement said. For 2007, Uzbekistan, one of the world's biggest gold, cotton and uranium producers, reported growth of 9.5 percent.
Central Asia's most populous state has been slow in abandoning Soviet-style command economy management, but the IMF welcomed its prudent fiscal policies and "gradual" structural reforms following a mission's visit to the country last May.