Uzbekistan’s Central Bank Plans Shift to External Management of International Reserves
Economy
Uzbekistan’s Central Bank is considering transferring part of the country’s international reserves to external managers. Central Bank Chairman Timur Ishmetov made the statement on September 18 at the first International Forum on Public Asset Management in Tashkent.
According to Ishmetov, Uzbekistan’s gold and foreign-exchange reserves stood at $72 billion as of September 1, providing coverage for more than a year of imports. During the first half of the year, the country increased its gold reserves by around 50 tonnes, the second-largest increase among central banks, according to the World Gold Council.
Gold traditionally accounts for a significant share of Uzbekistan’s reserves because the country is a gold producer. At the same time, the Central Bank has been gradually expanding its portfolio. In 2020, it joined the World Bank’s partnership on reserve advisory and management, while in 2024 it made its first purchase of US Treasury securities.
“We intend to move toward further diversification — across asset classes, currencies and counterparties,” Ishmetov said.
One of the next steps will be external management of part of the portfolio. According to the Central Bank chairman, this would allow its specialists to work alongside leading global professionals and gain practical experience from them.
The move comes as the structure of official reserves worldwide is also changing. The World Gold Council’s 2026 survey found that 89% of central banks expect global gold reserves to increase over the next 12 months, while 45% expect their own holdings to rise. At the same time, 74% of respondents expect the US dollar’s share of global reserves to decline over the next five years.
Ishmetov identified three strategic questions that still have no final answers: what level of concentration of a single asset is acceptable for a sovereign balance sheet, how reserve resilience should be built in practice, and what the strategic asset structure should look like if traditional relationships between assets have changed.
“We have our own views on all three questions. But we do not yet have final answers to any of them,” the Central Bank chairman said.
Gold traditionally accounts for a significant share of Uzbekistan’s reserves because the country is a gold producer. At the same time, the Central Bank has been gradually expanding its portfolio. In 2020, it joined the World Bank’s partnership on reserve advisory and management, while in 2024 it made its first purchase of US Treasury securities.
“We intend to move toward further diversification — across asset classes, currencies and counterparties,” Ishmetov said.
One of the next steps will be external management of part of the portfolio. According to the Central Bank chairman, this would allow its specialists to work alongside leading global professionals and gain practical experience from them.
The move comes as the structure of official reserves worldwide is also changing. The World Gold Council’s 2026 survey found that 89% of central banks expect global gold reserves to increase over the next 12 months, while 45% expect their own holdings to rise. At the same time, 74% of respondents expect the US dollar’s share of global reserves to decline over the next five years.
Ishmetov identified three strategic questions that still have no final answers: what level of concentration of a single asset is acceptable for a sovereign balance sheet, how reserve resilience should be built in practice, and what the strategic asset structure should look like if traditional relationships between assets have changed.
“We have our own views on all three questions. But we do not yet have final answers to any of them,” the Central Bank chairman said.
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