In the first nine months of the year, exports earned $1.73 billion, or more than double the same period of 2016, data posted by the National Statistics Office on Friday showed.

But the pace of growth has slowed in recent months. For January through July, exports were more than four times the total for the first seven months of 2016.

The loss of steam reflects issues at the border with China, Mongolia’s largest coal customer, that have created a queue of trucks stretching 100 kilometres (60 miles) into the Gobi Desert.

Coal miners in the desert have been planning to increase production on the back of stronger demand from China after the closure of mines there and bans on coal imports from North Korea and smaller ports.

The strong Mongolian exports in the first half helped spur economic growth of 5.3 percent from a year earlier.

This year’s rebound in coal exports “is driving economic recovery,” said Dale Choi, an analyst and head of Altan Bumba Financial Group.

Now, Choi said, “the key is resolving infrastructure and border bottlenecks, favourable Chinese pricing and geopolitical tensions between Mongolia, Russia and China”.

Mongolia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry has been working since August to improve customs to more thoroughly inspect transported goods at the border after Chinese officials discovered irregularities in shipments.

A representative from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs could not be reached for comment.

In January-September, Mongolia’s total exports grew 37.5 percent from a year earlier to $4.58 billion -- of which coal accounted for 38 percent. There was a trade surplus of $1.5 billion, 64 percent more than for the first three quarters of 2016.

Mongolia is waiting for disbursement of about $38 million from the International Monetary Fund after a government reshuffle delayed the payment. The IMF earlier this year approved a $5.5 billion economic bailout to relieve debt pressures and maintain stability in the local currency, the tugrik.

The prime minister has already made his nominations, and the president is expected to confirm appointments next week.

The fund aims to help with the country’s economy, infrastructure, agriculture, tourism, renewable energy, small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as to support employment for people with disabilities, the ADB director, Muhammad Sami Saeed, said at a meeting with Mongolian Prime Minister Khurelsukh Ukhnaa.

Ukhnaa, for his part, stressed that his country will continue to implement the Government’s Action Plan for 2016-2020 and the Program for the Restoration of the Mongolian Economy, noting that the political situation will remain stable regardless of the formation of a new cabinet of ministers.

The prime minister also expressed his gratitude to the ADB for the decision to grant Mongolia a loan of 900 million dollars and for the allocation of the first part of the loan totaling 250 million dollars as part of the IMF’s programme.

Having agreed with the policy of the prime minister on Mongolia’s economic diversification, the ADB official expressed his hope that Mongolia would maintain its achievements in the field of budgetary discipline and ensure macroeconomic stability.

Over the past 25 years, the ADB has implemented in Mongolia about 280 projects and programmes in such areas as health, social protection, infrastructure and urban planning for a total of 1.9 billion dollars.

MBD is hosting this visit and there will be a specific business events and B2B follow up activities in 2018 for the serious joint business settlement in mutual countries.

On the sidelines of the conference, State Secretary D.Davaasuren met and exchanged views with James Zhan, Senior Director of the Investment and Enterprise at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Yonov Agah, Deputy Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and Dorothy Tembo, Deputy Executive Director of the International Trade Center.

The State Secretary handed over a draft of Mongolia’s investment agreement to James Zhan and agreed to cooperate with the UNCTAD in conducting an expert analysis on the draft and making a policy recommendation.

The State Secretary noted the importance of making the Trade Facilitation Agreement entered into force, during his meeting with Deputy Director-General Yonov Agah. The sides exchanged views on Mongolia’s policies in scope of the Agreement and then agreed to cooperate in strengthening the national capacity in the WTO agreements and trade negotiations.

During his meeting with Deputy Executive Director Dorothy Tembo, the State Secretary discussed the bilateral cooperation directed at trade facilitation and diversification of Mongolia’s export. The parties agreed to join hands on realizing a ‘Diversifying Mongolia’s Economy’ project, drafted by the International Trade Center.

As weather conditions caused crop loss this year, Mongolia made a decision to import wheat from Russia at a market price.

At present, 20 percent of home-grown wheat has been sold as flour mills purchase about 5,000-20,000 tons of wheat at a time.

Although snow fell earlier this month, causing temporary halt, the harvesting is continuing across the nation, officials said.

Fresh research has revealed a change of fortunes for the dwindling fleet of power plants, unless ministers use the autumn budget to raise taxes on carbon at a cost of almost £1bn to consumers.

Coal plants have closed apace in ­recent years as the tax made it more economic to burn gas for power. But analysts predict economics will swing back in favour of coal after 2020 as cheap gas prices begin to rise and coal prices fall. A glut of liquefied natural gas projects, which export globally via tankers, has kept a lid on the commodity price of gas but rising demand will squeeze supplies within the next five years, according to Aurora Research.

Meanwhile, a boom in coal production from China could send rising coal prices into reverse. Richard Howard, an analyst at Aurora, said the economic flip would require the Government to set a carbon price of around £40 a ton by 2025 to phase out coal using market-drivers. Currently UK carbon prices are pegged at £23 a ton, nearly five times that paid in the rest of Europe, where the EU market values carbon at just €6 (£5.34) a ton.

But raising the carbon tax could add almost £1bn, or an extra £10 to each energy bill every year, at a time that ministers are hoping to clamp down on rising bills. 

Excluding a market-based approach to rely solely on its political commitment to ban coal from 2025 could leave the door open for the grid to use more coal-fired power in the early 2020s ­before a sudden cliff edge wipes out the final 13GW of power capacity at a stroke. A steadily rising carbon tax combined with the political moratorium would encourage investment in lower carbon options.

“The Government faces a tough ­decision on the future of the carbon price,” said Mr Howard. Ministers will be wary of balancing their competing priorities to meet carbon reduction targets, while securing affordable energy and managing tax receipts, he added.

The World Bank and IMF joint development committee met in Washington on Saturday. Representatives from Japan, the United States, China and other member nations discussed a proposal to boost the bank's capital to enhance its financial capacity.

But the World Bank's biggest financial contributor, the United States, reportedly argued that higher-income emerging economies such as China should be able to raise their own capital in the markets.

The World Bank is urging its members to agree on a capital increase when it holds meetings next spring.

However, it is unclear if they can reach an agreement, given the US stance on the issue.

“We will be paying close attention to the inflation data in the months ahead,” Yellen said in prepared remarks at an international banking seminar in Washington. “My best guess is that these soft readings will not persist.”

Yellen also said she expected the U.S. economy to exceed its long-term trend during the second half of the year and repeated the impact of recent hurricanes on the economy should be temporary.

The U.S. central bank voted to hold interest rates steady at its last policy meeting in September. Since then, Yellen has repeatedly acknowledged rising uncertainty on the path of inflation, which has been retreating from the Fed’s 2 percent target rate for much of the year.

Minutes from the meeting, released last Wednesday, showed policymakers had a broad debate about recent soft inflation and the impact on interest rates if it fails to rebound.

However, Yellen and some other key policymakers have also made plain they expect to continue to gradually raise interest rates given the strength of the overall economy and continued tightening of the labor market.

Fed officials largely shrugged off a weak jobs report for September and pinned the decline in employment on Hurricanes Harvey and Irma temporarily displacing workers.

In her speech, Yellen said the most recent wage gains contained in the September jobs report were encouraging and that she expected the central bank to raise interest rates further.

“We continue to expect that the ongoing strength of the recovery will warrant gradual increases in that rate to sustain a healthy labor market and stabilize inflation around our 2 percent longer-run objective.”

The central bank has raised interest rates four times in its tightening cycle which began in late 2015. The Fed currently predicts one more rate rise this year and three the next.

The Fed has two more scheduled meetings this year, in November and December. Investors currently see the Fed raising interest rates in December.