China’s General Administration of Customs (GTU) has released trade data for the first half of 2023 involving Central Asian nations, and to no one’s surprise Turkmenistan is the only one of the five with a favourable trade balance with the PRC. Overall, China exported about $26.4 billion in goods to Central Asia during the first six months of the year, while registering almost $13.5 billion in imports, led by oil and natural gas.

Uzbekistan so far is the only Central Asian state to post trade statistics for the H1 2023 period. In keeping with a trend, the Uzbek figures diverge from China’s. According to the GTU, trade turnover with Uzbekistan increased by 26.8 percent compared to the same period in 2022, reaching almost $6.1 billion. Chinese exports to Uzbekistan totalled about $5.46 billion, while imports amounted to roughly $629 million. Meanwhile, Uzbekistan’s Statistics Agency reported about $5.26 billion in trade turnover, with Uzbekistan importing $4.23 billion in Chinese goods and services, and exports to China totalling roughly  $1.03 billion. 

The GTU trade figures show sharp increases in China’s H1 commerce with other Central Asian states, compared to the same period in 2022: 

Kazakhstan: trade turnover rose by 26.8 percent to $18.25 billion; exports to Kazakhstan reached $10.63 billion, imports $7.62 billion.

Kyrgyzstan: turnover increased by 27.6 percent to $7.92 billion; exports to the KyrgyzRepublic totalled $7.89 billion, imports $26 million.

Tajikistan: turnover skyrocketed 84.7 percent to $2.11 billion; exports to Tajikistan hit $1.96 billion, imports $152 million.

Turkmenistan: turnover rose by 12.3 percent to $5.55 billion; exports to Turkmenistan measured $476 million, while imports reached $5.076 billion, of which gas supplies accounted for $5.058 billion.

Justin Burke is Eurasianet's publisher. 

This article first appeared on Eurasianet here.