Rika Ishii said the economy of Uzbekistan grew by 5.4% average in last seven years. He said the EBRD forecasts that gross domestic product of Uzbekistan will make up 9.3% in 2007 and 7.5% in 2008.

EBRD official said the growth of economy of Uzbekistan is stimulated by favourable world prices to gold and hydrocarbon materials, as well as large volume of remittances into country (about 7% of GDP in 2006 and the pace will be kept this year).

At the same time, EBRD experts noted weak development of banking sector of Uzbekistan, which can slow down economic growth of the country in middle-term perspectives. The bank said the assets of state banks concerns as they finance state projects, which are not always financially viable, vesti.uz reported.