Gold hovering near $4,000 an ounce has lifted exports, state reserves, and miner wages across Central Asia. The windfall has also fed inflation, mounting debt, and fears of leaning on a single commodity, economists warn.
Record gold prices have reshaped Central Asia, a region heavily dependent on the metal, lifting government spending and pushing up pay for miners in the hills north of the Uzbek village of Soykechar. Governments across the region often credit their own reforms for rising living standards, but much of that gain has been underwritten by gold.
A price near record highs
Gold has hovered around $4,000 an ounce in recent weeks, after peaking north of $5,200 in February and falling toward $4,100 this summer. The metal traded at $2,050 at the beginning of 2024, and a decade ago it sold for about $1,300.
Exports and reserves climb
Across the region, Uzbekistan's exports hit an all-time high of $33 billion in 2025, with gold accounting for roughly 30%, or $9.9 billion. Kyrgyzstan's reserves, about 75% of which are in gold, rose from $5.1 billion at the end of 2024 to $8.6 billion. Higher reserves lift investor confidence and make borrowing cheaper, said Franco Galdini, an economist at the University of Birmingham who studies Uzbekistan's economy.
Those reserves have given regional leaders a certain confidence. Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov told parliament in December the economy faced no danger: "We could clear the foreign debt in one day".
Miners and mining firms cash in
Gold has also added to state revenues. Uzbekistan's state-owned Navoi Mining and Metallurgical Co., one of the world's largest gold producers, paid $2.64 billion in taxes last year — nearly 12% of the country's $22.3 billion tax take and double its 2024 bill. In Kazakhstan, private mining firm AltynGold sold 29% more gold in Q1 2026 than a year earlier, while its revenues rose 122%.
Ordinary workers have felt it too. Miners near Soykechar say their wages rose 20% over the past year. Excavator driver Gulum saw his monthly pay climb from $500 to $650. Yet inflation and mounting debt have absorbed much of the gain, with rising food, utility, and loan costs eating into his raise.
The risk of leaning on one metal
Heavy reliance on gold leaves economies like Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan exposed if prices fall, though Galdini called a crash far from certain. The danger is not hypothetical: when Kyrgyzstan's gold exports faltered last year, total exports dropped 44%. Rising extraction costs and steady central-bank demand are likely to keep prices elevated for now, Galdini said, even as the region's economic fundamentals stay unchanged.
Source: Oilprice.com
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