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Uzbekistan received $15.17 billion in remittances in the first nine months of 2026, an increase of 8.9 percent compared with the same period a year earlier, according to data published by the Central Bank of Uzbekistan.
The $1.24 billion gain was heavily front-loaded. In the first half of the year remittances grew 13 percent year on year, but momentum faded in the third quarter, when growth slowed to 2.9 percent. Outbound transfers from Uzbekistan were broadly flat, totalling $1.95 billion over the nine months against $1.93 billion in the equivalent period of 2025.
Russia’s dominance persists, but its share is slipping
Russia remains by far the largest source of remittances for Uzbek labour migrants, but its relative weight is declining. Its share of total inflows fell from 77.6 percent in the first quarter of 2025 to 72.4 percent in the first quarter of 2026. Despite that shift, transfers from Russia still rose 8.8 percent in the first half of 2026 — a notable result given that Uzbek citizens made 13.2 percent fewer work-related border crossings into Russia over the same period, recording roughly 1.18 million such entries. The Central Bank counts each crossing separately, so a single worker who crossed multiple times appears more than once in the tally.
The backdrop in Russia has grown more restrictive. Russia’s Interior Ministry reported that more than 260,000 foreign nationals and stateless persons were barred from entering the country between January and August 2026, a 75.8 percent increase from the same eight months of 2025. The ministry did not publish a separate figure for Uzbek citizens.
Western labour markets gaining ground from a low base
Uzbekistan has been actively seeking to diversify the destinations available to its migrant workers, and the remittance data suggest some early results. In the first half of 2026, transfers from the United Kingdom rose 62 percent year on year, those from European Union member states grew 27 percent, and inflows from the United States increased 19 percent. The Central Bank figures do not specify absolute values for these corridors, and all three remain far smaller in volume than the Russia channel.
The combination of a slowing third quarter, a declining Russian share and tighter entry restrictions in Moscow points to a remittance landscape that is gradually rebalancing, even if Russia’s structural dominance over Uzbekistan’s labour export economy remains intact for now.