Uzbekistan stopped selling gold abroad in October, and six months later the country just dumped $1.5 billion of it onto global markets in a single month.
The National Statistics Committee reported the numbers Tuesday, with almost all of the year-to-date exports landing in April. That means one of the world's biggest gold producers just turned the tap back on at full pressure.
From October 2025 through March 2026, Uzbekistan shipped no gold overseas - none at all - while it sat on the metal as prices kept climbing.
Then April hit, and the freeze ended with the $1.5 billion in non-monetary gold sales concentrated almost entirely in one month.
For context on what Uzbekistan typically does: in 2025 the country sold $9.9 billion of gold abroad, which was 29.3% of total exports and an all-time record. Gold is the country's economy in a way few investors outside Central Asia track.
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Uzbekistan stockpiled gold during the pause as prices kept setting records.
The country's international reserves hit $70 billion in January 2026 with 86% of that in gold, which is $27.1 billion more than a year earlier.
When a producer that big sits on its inventory and prices keep rising, every month is a bigger paper gain - so selling now means locking some of it in.
The Navoi Mining and Metallurgical Combine, the country's flagship producer and the fourth-largest in the world, posted $1.5 billion in net profit in just the first half of 2025 on $4.7 billion in revenue.
A $1.5 billion sale in a single month from one country is a real number, even in a global gold market that runs hot right now.
Whether more of Uzbekistan's stockpile follows it onto the market is the open question. If this is the start of a wider sell-down, that's new supply hitting at a moment when central banks elsewhere are still buying.
The May export data is the next tell. If it matches or exceeds April, Uzbekistan is back as a steady seller - and gold's supply picture just changed.
If it drops back toward zero, April was a one-off cash-in.
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