The gross domestic product (GDP) of Uzbekistan grew by 8.1% in Jan-Mar 2008, according to a session of the Cabinet of Ministers held on 18 April that summed up results of the country's socio-economic development in the first quarter this year and discussed measures to ensure the implementation of priority tasks of economic reforms.

The session informed that the volume of industrial production increased by 10.6% in the reporting period, agricultural output by 4.8%, construction work 5%, retail commodity turnover 12.7%, paid services 19.8%.

It was noted that Uzbekistan achieved such positive indicators due to the measures taken to implement the most important priorities of the Programme of socio-economic development of the country for 2008, determined by the President Islam Karimov at the governmental session on 8 February this year.

The session participants noted stable and high growth rate of the foreign trade turnover, first of all, thanks to the increase in exports by 56.1%. State budget has been performed with proficit, the level of inflation has not exceeded the forecast parameters.

The measures taken on the realization of the Investment Programme 2008, as well as the programmes on modernization and technical re-equipment of the priority industries of the national economy provided for the growth of the volumes of investments by 41%, including foreign directs investments by 56.8%.

The share of small businesses in the country's GDP rose by 2% in Jan-Mar 2008 compared with the same period of 2007. The volume of credits allocated for the support of small businesses made up 269 billion soums, which is a 39.8% quarter-on-quarter increase.

Some 170,000 new workplaces were created in the reporting period, including in the sphere of service more than 67,000, due to organization of home-based work 55,000.

The session emphasized the necessity of speeding up the approval of project documentation and attraction of investments for the implementation of some investment projects in the agriculture and water management, oil-and-gas, mining and metallurgical branches, as well as the industry of construction materials.

After discussion of the issues put on the session's agenda, members of the government made a resolve with determination of additional measures to ensure absolute implementation of top priorities of the Programme of socio-economic development of the country for 2008.

Press-uz.info