RELATIONS BETWEEN THE CENTRAL BANK AND COMMERCIAL BANKS IN UZBEKISTAN: INDEPENDENCE, POLICY TRANSMISSION AND COMPETITION

This article analyzes the relationship between the Central Bank of Uzbekistan and commercial banks after the 2019 revision of the Law on the Central Bank and the replacement of the refinancing rate with the policy rate in 2020. The study assesses statutory independence along five institutional criteria, examines the transmission of the policy rate into deposit and lending rates, and evaluates the ownership and competitive structure of the banking sector using data for 2017–2026. The results show that statutory independence broadly corresponds to international practice, while operational independence remains constrained by state ownership of banks, the recapitalisation of stateowned banks and the persistence of preferential lending. The markup of the average soum lending rate over the policy rate narrowed from 9.0 to 7.6 percentage points while the policy rate remained unchanged, and concentration indices describe the market as competitive although state-owned banks hold about two-thirds of the loan portfolio. The proposed recommendations are aimed at strengthening monetary transmission, reducing the cost of credit through the compression of the markup rather than through administrative measures, and developing competition in the banking market.