On October 24, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Budget discussed a draft amendment to the law on the 2017 Budget and Finance Minister Ch.Khurelbaatar said MNT 55 billion will be required for the allowance.

“Salary and premium of state servants cannot be raised until 2019 according to an agreement with the IMF. However we reached to agreement with the IMF on the single-benefit allowance allocation as state servants salary has not been raised since 2014, while the inflation rate has grown up drastically. We intend to hold talks further with the IMF on state servants’ salary and premium”.

The 5.5 year bond, which is expected to price at around 6.1 per cent, is being sold following a road show by the government earlier this month that stopped in London, New York and Boston.The sale, which will be used to buy back and retire existing debt, is being managed by Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan.

With any yield at all hard to come by, investors this year have shown an increasing desire to fund governments with lower credit ratings that are borrowing in foreign currencies, in spite of warnings from ratings agencies that many of these “frontier markets” are highly vulnerable to rising global interest rates.

In September Tajikistan managed to raise $500m from an inaugural 10-year international bond sale for which it payed a fixed rate of 7.125 per cent. The month before Iraq raised $1bn with a five-year, 6.75 per cent bond which was six times oversubscribed.

The new benchmark will reportedly allow exporters, such as Russia, Iran or Venezuela to avoid US sanctions by trading oil in yuan.

The analyst said the new contract would be able to serve as a hedging tool for Chinese corporations, as well as support the government’s broader plans to extend the use of the national currency in trade settlement.

According to Levinson, Chinese companies might grow into anchor investors in Saudi Arabia’s initial public offering of its national oil giant, Saudi Aramco.

At the same time, some analysts are skeptical of China’s ambitious plan to create its own benchmark.

“Game changer it is not — at least not yet. But it is another indicator of the beginning of the glacial, and I emphasize the word glacial, decline of the dollar,” said Gal Luft, co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, as quoted by CNBC.
The end of US dollar hegemony has been a consistent message from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Russia shares the BRICS countries’ concerns over the unfairness of the global financial and economic architecture, which does not give due regard to the growing weight of the emerging economies. We are ready to work together with our partners to promote international financial regulatory reforms and to overcome the excessive domination of the limited number of reserve currencies,” Putin said two months ago during the BRICs summit in Xiamen.

Both countries can operate direct flights based on the bilateral aviation agreement but no proposal yet for such a flight, U Ye Htut Aung, deputy director general of Department of Aviation told The Myanmar Times on October 20. 

“They can fly directly from and to Myanmar and Mongolia if any airlines are interested. But we haven’t received any proposal yet for direct flight between the two countries,” he said. 

According to the Freedom of Air Agreement between Myanmar and Mongolia, airlines can stop over in Myanmar and continue their journey to other destinations, for instance to Singapore or Malaysia, he said. 

Myanmar has signed aviation agreements with 48 countries.

The Ministry of Finance and Planning said, trade volume between both nations remained small and during the 2015-2016 fiscal year the value was only more than US$360,000.

“Mongolia is not a big country to deal with Myanmar in terms of foreign trade. We used to export garments to Mongolia and Mongolia imported whipping cream. The amount of trade volume is not much difference between us,” U Khin Maung Lwin, assistant permanent secretary of Ministry of Finance and Planning said.

Bilateral trade was about $40,000 in 2016-17 fiscal years and Myanmar exported $12,000 worth of goods until October in this fiscal year.

· The Company has signed the contract with BGP Inc (a divisions of China National Petroleum Company) for 3D and 2D seismic work in Blocks IV and V

· Preliminary mobilization and camp construction is already underway, allowing for immediate preparatory and long lead work to begin

· The 218km2 3D survey in Blocks IV and V will be the first ever 3D seismic acquired in western Mongolia

Further to its announcement of 4 October 2017, the Company is pleased to provide the timelines and details regarding the planned seismic work programme following the signing of the BGP contract, as detailed further below. The 220km2 3D survey will be the first ever 3D seismic acquired in western Mongolia. It will be conducted over the Tugrug Basin of eastern Block V, a longstanding priority basin for Petro Matad with a proven working petroleum system including mature source rock, reservoir rocks with good porosity & permeability and live hydrocarbon staining found in previous stratigraphic coring operations. 

The survey in the Tugrug Basin of Block V is expected to begin 3D data recording operations by mid-November and to be completed by mid-December, 2017. The crew will then begin a 150 line km infill 2D survey in the same area, extending outward from the 3D, to cover surrounding prospects and leads. No camp move is required so the 2D acquisition can begin seamlessly after completion of the 3D. As such, the estimated completion date of the Tugrug Basin 2D program will be two weeks after the 3D. 

Following completion of the Tugrug Basin 2D, the crew and camp will move 350km NW into Block IV to acquire a new 205 line km 2D seismic grid over the Khangai Basin. The Khangai Basin is a deep and prospective basin in north-central Block IV. It has been high graded following the results of the airborne FTG/HRAM survey of 2015. Whilst only two regional 2D seismic lines currently cross the Khangai Basin, these lines show adequate basinal depths (3500M-4000M) and prospective structural and stratigraphic configurations. The Khangai Basin 2D survey is projected to start in late December, and complete before the end of January 2018. 

Processing of both the 3D and 2D data has been contracted to Western GeCo (a division of Schlumberger Limited). The data will be delivered to the processors in near real time to allow maximum efficiency and return of processed data to the Company. Both the 3D and 2D programs are focused on high grading specific leads and prospects to potential drilling targets for the 2018/19 operational seasons.

The benchmark-sized 144A/Reg S notes have expected ratings of B-/B- (S&P/Fitch) and will price today.

Proceeds will be used for the repurchase of the US$500m 4.125% notes due January 2018 and Rmb1bn (US$151m) 7.50% Dim Sum notes due June 2018 via tender offer, as well as to retire certain of the government's external debt.

Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan are joint bookrunners on the transaction.

Germany’s second-largest lender has hired Goldman Sachs and Rothschild to evaluate its options, including a possible defense scenario, they said. Commerzbank, Goldman Sachs and Rothschild all declined to comment.

Commerzbank has been restructuring ever since an ill-timed acquisition of Dresdner Bank for 9.8 billion euros ($11.53 billion) in 2008. The move forced Commerzbank to take a government bailout, slash jobs, close hundreds of retail branches and rein in its investment banking.

But its strong corporate lending business - Commerzbank specializes in financing Germany’s prized Mittelstand of medium-sized companies - makes it an attractive target for European peers eyeing a stronger footprint in Europe’s largest economy.

Italy’s UniCredit recently told Berlin it is interested in eventually merging with Commerzbank, people familiar with the matter told Reuters last month.

The bank has also caught the eye of other European peers. But the German government, which still holds a 15.6 percent stake, last month denied a report that it favored a merger of Commerzbank with France’s BNP Paribas.

Berlin has said it would be willing to eventually sell the stake but it needs to get at least 18 euros per share in any sale to avoid a loss on its investment.

Shares in Commerzbank, which has a market capitalization of 14.4 billion euros ($16.93 billion), were up 2.5 percent at 11.71 euros by 0800 GMT.

While a foreign peer may eventually succeed in buying the lender, a consolidation within Germany is also on the cards.

Top executives at Commerzbank and bellwether Deutsche Bank held unsuccessful talks on a combination last year, a person with knowledge of the matter said at the time.

Regardless of the outcome, private equity firm Cerberus stands to gain from any deal after recently becoming Commerzbank’s second-largest investor with a 5 percent stake.

Goldman Sachs had been in contact with Commerzbank for months, but the mandate was formalized after Cerberus’ investment in the summer, a person close to the matter said.

The bank mandates were earlier reported by the Financial Times.