![President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov la](https://assets.euromoneydigital.com/dims4/default/aa94672/2147483647/strip/true/crop/960x535+0+0/resize/800x446!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Feuromoney-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F1a%2F7e%2F5a110a8a42db94c1eea609a0ee23%2Fuzbekistan-gettyimages-79576406-960x535.jpg)
It is hard to think of an emerging economy in the Asian region that’s having a better Covid-19 crisis than Uzbekistan. Central Asia’s most-populous nation expanded 1.6% in 2020 while the US and Europe flirted with a return to the 1930s.
Since September 2016, president Shavkat Mirziyoyev has confounded the conventional wisdom about what’s possible from Tashkent. Few expected a reform Big Bang when Mirziyoyev succeeded Islam Karimov. Odds were, Mirziyoyev would stick with the Soviet-lite policies of his predecessor, whom he served as deputy prime minister.
But Mirziyoyev veered the other way, abandoning the fixed exchange-rate system, cutting corporate taxes, slashing import tariffs, liberalizing capital markets, rewriting the central bank law and creating a state privatization agency. His government eased visa restrictions and began negotiations to join the World Trade Organization.
The country faces very challenging and painful reform elements
![Alisher.Djumanov,Silk_400x225.jpg](https://assets.euromoneydigital.com/dims4/default/d7738bb/2147483647/strip/true/crop/400x225+0+0/resize/800x450!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Feuromoney-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F1b%2F70%2F34ca2a78490d821e5f841a9f6b4e%2Falisher.Djumanov%2CSilk_400x225.jpg)
These changes meant Uzbekistan was able to navigate the worst of the Covid-19 crisis. The economic impact of the pandemic in Uzbekistan was limited by timely containment and support measures, but it was also lessened thanks to prudent macroeconomic policies in the preceding years.