Uzbekistan Aims to Cut Poverty Rate from 8.9% to 6% by 2025

Uzbekistan aims to bring its poverty rate down to 6% by the close of 2025, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev announced at the third international forum on poverty reduction, From Poverty to Prosperity, held in Namangan.

The president highlighted that poverty stood at 8.9% in 2024, but reforms and programmes have already helped lift 7.5 mln people out of hardship in recent years.

He stressed that tackling poverty has become a state priority. Over the past eight years Uzbekistan has generated new jobs, increased household incomes and improved living standards, particularly for young people and women. A central tool in this effort has been targeted social programmes.

During the pandemic, 800,000 families received free medicines, 255,000 were provided with food supplies and 1.2 mln benefited from social payments. According to Mirziyoyev, these measures shielded 5.2 mln citizens from falling into poverty during the health and economic crisis.

The government now aims to build on this foundation with expanded opportunities and continued social support to achieve its ambitious 2025 poverty reduction goal.

Kursiv also reports that CERR has begun adapting aspects of China’s poverty reduction model to Uzbekistan’s socio-economic context