In 2023 Kyrgyzstan imported 79,131 cars worth nearly $1.2bn from China, an almost 45-fold increase compared to the 1,773 cars imported in 2022, the National Statistics Committee has reported.
The import of cars from South Korea also increased, reaching 50,397 for almost $435m.
The sharp increase in Kyrgyzstan’s car imports is largely due to the zeroing out of customs duties of the Eurasian Economic Union on the import of electric vehicles from third countries. Kyrgyzstan is a member of the EEU, together with Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia.
Since the introduction of Western sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, China has become the main supplier of new cars to the Russian Federation. Chinese vehicles are mainly exported to Russia via Central Asian countries.
In total, 184,789 cars worth $2.7bn were imported into Kyrgyzstan last year, a 4.5-fold increase since 2022.
At the same time, in 2023 Kyrgyzstan re-exported 8,733 cars worth $69.6m, almost nine times more than in 2022. Most of the cars were re-exported to Russia — 6,253 for $52.5m, and 2,374 cars worth $10.8m were sent to Kazakhstan.
