The central bank announced on Monday that it would stop buying gold starting April 1, but didn’t explain the move. Analysts say Russia already has a lot of gold stashed in reserves and likely doesn’t need more.

Plus, with gold prices near a seven-year high and international investors clamoring for a safe haven, Russian dealers are probably eager to sell. Bullion has become an extremely popular investment in recent weeks as the coronavirus sows fear through financial markets, but some dealers are having a hard time sourcing gold bars.

“The central bank is now signaling to gold sellers that they should redirect their supplies externally,” said Dmitry Dolgin, ING Bank’s chief economist in Russia. “Global demand seems to be high.”

Worldwide panic over the coronavirus outbreak and a flood of stimulus by central banks has ignited demand for the metal. But even though there are literally thousands of tons of gold bars sitting in vaults around the world, it’s been hard to get metal when and where it’s needed. Gold is usually shipped on ordinary commercial flights, which are being canceled by the thousands.

More gold coming from Russia could ease tightness in the market. Suppliers may turn to chartered flights as a way to reach key buyers, said Eduard Rybkin, deputy head of the precious metals division at Lanta Bank in Moscow.

He said there’s demand from traditional buyers like London, but also places such as India, Turkey and Singapore.

Russia’s relentless gold buying in recent years has been a key pillar of support for the market, putting a floor under prices as investors ditched safe havens and bought riskier, higher-yielding assets. The bullion stockpile held by Russia’s central bank is valued at about $120 billion.

Gold accounts for about 20% of Russian international reserves, which is a high level historically and compared with other central banks.

“The central bank probably doesn’t want to increase gold’s share in reserves, while the size of reserves is falling,” said Tatiana Evdokimova, an analyst at Nordea Bank in Moscow.

The central bank said future decisions about its gold purchases will depend on the state of financial markets, according to a statement.

(By Yuliya Fedorinova, Elena Mazneva and Anya Andrianova)

Mongolia opened its Shiveekhuren border point on Monday, a week after the country resumed coal exports to China through Gasuunsukhait border point, Finance Minister Chimed Khurelbaatar said Monday.

Khurelbaatar said he expects to fully recover deliveries of coal to China soon.

The Mongolian government in February suspended coal exports to China in a bid to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in its country.

Mongolia exported 2.9 million tons of coals to China from Jan. 1 to mid-March this year, down 47 percent from the same period last year, according to the Chinese embassy in Mongolia

Evacuation

Any other remaining EU citizens wishing to leave Mongolia will be able to do so at their own expense with charter flights operated by MIAT Mongolian Airlines to:

• Tokyo: 30 March and 3 April at 01.30 am (Narita International Airport);

• Seoul: 31 March and 2 April at 08.30 am (Incheon International Airport);

• Possible flights to European destinations to be confirmed.

For information on the possibilities of onward travel to the European Union, EU citizens are advised to contact their national authorities, the authorities of transit countries and to review visa requirements for entry and transit.

For reservation, prices and other information regarding the flight, EU citizens can directly contact MIAT Mongolian Airlines (tel.: 99001881or 88104703; Central Tower, tel.: (11)313385 99001881, or Encanto Tower, tel.: (11)322118); or AirTrans ticketing agency (City Plaza, tel.: (11)303030).

Travel

Mongolian authorities suspended the entry of all passengers through all border checkpoints until 30 April, 2020.

Subject to further implementation modalities, this restriction does not apply to:

Accredited staff and their direct family members of diplomatic missions and offices of international organisations in Mongolia (to be quarantined for 14 days upon arrival);
Foreign nationals who are direct family members of Mongolian nationals (to be quarantined for 14 days upon arrival);
International freight transport drivers and railway personnel of Mongolia, Russia and China.
This restriction entails:

Suspension of all regular passenger flights;
Suspension of international passenger train travel;
Closure of all land borders of Mongolia with China and Russia.
Public Places

Visitors to public places are required to wear a surgical facemask and can be subject to temperature screenings;
Prohibition of public gatherings, events and meetings, such as conferences, sporting events and concerts;
Closure of schools, universities, higher education institutions, kindergardens and vocational training centres, cinemas and entertainment centres until 30 April.
Quarantine

Foreigners with symptoms and those who have been to countries with confirmed cases might be subject to quarantine at a government facility on their own expense.
The information is current as of 27 March 2020.

Authorities might issue further travel restrictions, recommendations and updates.

If stranded in Mongolia, EU citizens are advised to keep regular contact with their representing Embassy, consult the travel advisory issued by EU Member States and local resources.

65.1 percent of those debts or MNT 2 trillion are held by business entities and 35 percent or MNT 546 billion are taken out by individuals. In addition, MNT 195 billion of principal payments and MNT 72 billion of interest payments out of the debt service payments due have not been made.

The central bank has been taking necessary measures to alleviate the impacts of the pandemic on the country’s banking and financial areas in line with best practices from world countries and local legislation.

On March 11, the central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee decreased the policy rate by 1 percentage point to 10 percent, lowered the reserve requirement on banks’ liabilities in togrog by 2 percentage points to 8.5 percent, and changed the range of interest rate corridor to be +1, -1 percentage points from the policy rate.

The measure, aimed to ensure economic and financial stability while keeping the inflation rate around the target rate, was expected to relieve financing costs of banks, to support financial intermediation, and to stimulate economic growth by considering the current macroeconomic and financial outlook and its prospects, main driving factors, and uncertainties and risks in the domestic and external environment.

As a result of steps taken by the central bank, interest rates by commercial bank loans are expected to go down by one percentage point and new loans totaling MNT 300-400 billion will become available for borrowers.

Upon the government's recent decision to make deferrals on consumer and business loan repayment and their interests for three months, several temporary changes were made to regulations followed by the commercial banks on their asset classifications and requirements for their operations, allowing the banks not to change their borrowers’ credit ratings caused by failures on loan repayment.

Moreover, the appropriate liquidity ratio for commercial banks was reduced to 20 percent from original 25 percent, helping them to improve their financial capacities.

Since the government’s decision on loan repayment postponement was made, commercial banks have deferred loan repayments of 1,069 individual borrowers amounting to MNT 36.6 billion and of 126 companies totaling MNT 409.8 billion, reports the central bank.

L.Nandintsetseg

He informed that as of March 30, around 5,600 Mongolian nationals stranded around the globe due to travel restrictions, including more than 1,000 people in the USA, have submitted their requests to return home to the Mongolian Embassies. “Preparations are underway for the charter flights to be operated by the MIAT Mongolian Airlines to Seoul on April 2, Thursday and to Tokyo on April 3, Friday.”

He also noted that the people, who will arrive on those flights, are those who could not board the first flights from Seoul and Tokyo because of a limited number of seats and were placed on a waiting list for possible future flights.

Between March 15 and 18, the government chartered four flights to Seoul, Japan, Berlin and Istanbul, bringing almost 1,000 Mongolians, and 11 of whom were later tested positive for the COVID-19.

After denying the rumor that a charter flight might be arranged to the USA, once there is a sufficient number of people willing to arrive in Mongolia from there, Mr. Munkhtushig said that every possibility to bring them to Mongolia is under review though, and all diplomatic missions of Mongolia around the globe will continue to work with heightened efforts until the last Mongolian person trapped overseas due to coronavirus-related lockdowns returns home.

At the press briefing, it was also reported that 189 Korean nationals and 111 Mongolians, including Mongolians studying Korean universities and institutions, left for South Korea on March 29, Sunday on an evacuation flight by the South Korean government.

Preparation works for discharge of the two patients from hospital have been ensured. However, the two citizens recovered from coronavirus will be stayed in home-quarantine for 14 days. They have tested negative for the COVID-19 virus as a result of five types of tests carried out in the last three days.

Additionally, no new suspected cases recorded in the country yesterday, March 29.

More specifically, Russian President V.V.Putin met with A.B.Miller, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chairman of Management Committee of Gazprom PJSC on March 27. During the meeting, President V.V.Putin was heard 2019 report of Gazprom PJSC, its 2020 action plan and information on possibilities to provide Eastern Siberia and China with natural gas.

In 2020, Gazprom plans to implement investment projects and programs worth RUB 1.8 trillion in total. In particular, construction of 1942 km pipeline and extension of its underground storage facility for natural gas by 180 million cubic meter. Moreover, Mr. A.B.Miller highlighted construction of pipeline that supplies natural gas to Nord Stream 2 as well as development of gas deposit on Yamal Peninsula.

Within it, according to the preliminary feasibility study of construction of ‘Power of Siberia-2’ gas pipeline through the territory of Mongolia, it was concluded that 50 billion cubic meters of gas is fully possible to be supplied to China a year.

‘Gazprom’ PJSC extracted 500.1 billion cubic meters of natural gas in 2019 and exported 199.3 billion cubic meters from it. Russia still makes up 35.6 percent of natural gas supply of European market.

Funded by the European Union and implemented by AVSF, ‘STeP Ecolab’ project directly contributes to Sustainable Development Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production in Mongolian wool and cashmere sector.

STeP EcoLab Project promotes sustainable production in the whole wool and cashmere value chain by promoting:

I. Sustainable and quality raw material sourcing, relying on recognized traceability and certification schemes, while strengthening herder’s organizations and resilience of rural communities.

II. Support the textile industries for their implementation of sustainable practices focusing namely on the production efficiency in water, waste, chemicals, energy, social aspects.

III. Connecting green financing sources for those who adopt sustainable practices and help them to shift from brown to green production

IV. Sustainable wool and cashmere products in Mongolian and European niche markets.

Source: STeP EcoLab Mongolia Project

The medical supplies include a total of 500,000 masks and 5,000 fast test kits.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has become a global challenge. The Chinese government and people will continue to stand and work with Mongolia in fight against the disease," Chinese Ambassador to Mongolia Chai Wenrui said in a speech during the donation ceremony.

"I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Chinese side for donating the much-needed supplies, such as fast test kits, protective suits and surgical masks," said Mongolian Deputy Prime Minister Ulziisaikhan Enkhtuvshin, who also heads the State Emergency Commission.

"We are glad that under the strong leadership of the Chinese government, Chinese people have started bringing the COVID-19 epidemic under control, thousands of COVID-19 patients have been cured, and people's lives have slowly returned to normal across China. I want to emphasize that this gives the Mongolian government and people the confidence that we all can win the epidemic," said Enkhtuvshin.

As of Saturday, a total of 12 people, including a French national and 11 Mongolian citizens, have tested positive for COVID-19 in Mongolia, whose conditions remain stable, according to the National Center for Communicable Diseases.