The Uzbek government reports continuing progress in reducing poverty in the country. But the official baseline for calculating the poverty line may be contributing to an undercount.

The Ministry of Employment announced February 4 that Uzbekistan’s poverty rate in 2024 experienced a 2.1 percent decline, falling to 8.9, comparted with an 11 percent rate the previous year. Overall, almost 720,000 Uzbeks climbed above the poverty line last year, while 3.3 million Uzbeks continue to grapple with hunger and uncertainty. 

The Employment Ministry statement noted that four regions – Bukhara, Samarkand, Namangan and the autonomous region of Karakalpakstan – experienced the biggest rate declines in 2024.

Officials attributed progress in combatting poverty to government programs to foster “entrepreneurship, and increase the efficiency of using land allocated for homesteading and farming.” Average per capita monthly income experienced a 10.7 percent increase over the year, reaching 2.1 million Uzbek soum per month, about US $161.

World Bank experts have praised Uzbekistan’s poverty reduction efforts, noting that the government has instituted changes in the way it measures poverty rates, harmonizing its standards with globally accepted norms. “Until spring 2024, Uzbekistan was one of the few countries in the world that lacked internationally comparable poverty estimates,” an item posted on the World Bank’s website stated. “For decades, the country had measured poverty in a way that could not be directly compared with the rest of the world.” 

The government introduce a new methodology in 2021 and announced a goal of lowering the poverty rate by half within five years. Since then, the poverty rate has gone from 17 percent in 2022 to today’s 8.9 percent.

The baseline used to establish the poverty line, however, appears to be low. The current standard is 669,000 soum, or about $51, a month. Some observers contend the actual income level needed to escape poverty is higher than the official figure.

“Sustaining Uzbekistan’s rapid pace of poverty reduction will necessitate additional efforts from the government to enhance the productive capacity of poor households,” the World Bank item stated.

Impoverished Uzbeks, especially in rural areas, are “less likely to be employed, more likely to have lower levels of education, and have more dependents,” the item added. “Reducing gaps in these dimensions between households will be critical for tempering the rise in inequality and further reducing poverty.”