The current business environment of Mongolia has been declining as the spread of the coronavirus impacts the global economy in the last few months. Across nearly every industry, multinational companies are confronting the stark reality that business will not go on as usual. Economist and CEO of MIBG Bilguun Ankhbayar expressed his opinion on the situation in Mongolia.

-Since the COVID-19 outbreak has been threatening economies around the world, some of the differences have been seen in the stock market. For example, Mazaalai bond yield rose dramatically to 12 percent and Khuraldai bond to 13 percent as well. What is your verdict on it?

-Not only international investors but also users have experienced mental shock. It leads people to act strangely. Everyone individuals including the investors have been seeking zero-risk options since the virus became worse. Following the situation, many changes have been made in the markets.

-Most of the econismts seem to expect Mongolia to issue bonds again in the near future as the Government bonds are due soon. But the bond yields have increased. Do you think it will be stabilized at its previous rate?

-As far as I can see, the bond yields may decrease but not the same as it was before. Mongolia is likely to attract additional finance by issuing bonds.

-Mining sector, one of Mongolia’s main sources of economic growth, has been halted for a couple of months. Even though the coal export to China resumed recently, is it still possible to cover its losses in short term?

-It is hard, especially in the short term. The borders to China had been closed since the early January. In other words, it is merely impossible to cover almost two months of coal exports revenue. However, it is not the biggest problem for Mongolia than the potential commodity price decline. Recent drop in copper price may affect other commodities such as coking coal. Global economies are all connected. Producers and exporters in China are most likely to see decline, increasing the risk of Mongolia’s mineral products price to slip in the long term.

-Does the Single Window policy necessary during the economic hardship?

-Ofcourse, it will be effective to provide public service in this situation. As the investors have seen, Mongolians have the potential to unite when the crisis occur and the Government can provide reliable information, showing solidarity and cooperation.

-Central banks around the world have taken measures to manage the economic crisis, such as cutting the policy interest rate or spuring specific sectors. Most of them combined both fiscal and monetary policy. How accurate is Mongolia’s fiscal policy at the time? What should we do in the upcoming year?

-Well, we need to expand the budget to invest it on the long term projects, namely mining sector. It will benefit Mongolia in the long term as well as affecting other sectors. Focusing on the main revenue source is important.

The US now has more confirmed cases of coronavirus than any other country with more than 85,500 positive tests.

According to the latest figures collated by Johns Hopkins University, the US has overtaken China (81,782 cases) and Italy (80,589).

But with almost 1,300 Covid-19-related fatalities, the US death toll lags behind China (3,291) and Italy (8,215).

The grim milestone came as President Donald Trump predicted the nation would get back to work "pretty quickly".

How did the White House react?
Asked about the latest figures at a White House briefing on Thursday afternoon, President Trump said it was "a tribute to the amount of testing that we're doing".

Vice-President Mike Pence said coronavirus tests were now available in all 50 states and more than 552,000 tests had been conducted nationwide.

Trump says US tested more than S Korea - is he right?
Mr Trump also cast doubt on the figures coming out of Beijing, telling reporters: "You don't know what the numbers are in China."

He said he would speak to President Xi Jinping by phone on Thursday night, but denied the Chinese leader had asked him to "calm down" the language he uses to refer to the pandemic, which the US leader refers to as "the Chinese virus".

Does the president still hope to ease restrictions?
Mr Trump has set a much-criticised goal of Easter Sunday, 12 April, for reopening the country. That plan seemed to gather impetus on Thursday as it emerged an unprecedented 3.3 million Americans have been laid off because of the virus.

Record number of Americans file for unemployment

At Thursday's briefing, he said: "They [the American people] have to go back to work, our country has to go back, our country is based on that and I think it's going to happen pretty quickly.

"We may take sections of our country, we may take large sections of our country that aren't so seriously affected and we may do it that way."

He added: "A lot of people misinterpret when I say go back - they're going to be practising as much as you can social distancing, and washing your hands and not shaking hands and all of the things we talked about."

He promised more details next week.

What could he be planning?
In a letter to state governors on Thursday, Mr Trump said his team plans to release federal social distancing guidelines that may advise some regions to loosen restrictions.

Mr Trump wrote of a "long battle ahead" and said "robust" testing protocols might allow some counties to lift their safeguards against the coronavirus.

He said the "new guidelines" would create low, medium and high risk zones that would allow the government to advise on "maintaining, increasing, or relaxing social distancing and other mitigation measures they have put in place".

Trump knows economic meltdown brings political pain
What this crisis reveals about US - and its president
On Thursday night, Mr Trump phoned in to Fox News host Sean Hannity's programme and said he thinks Iowa, Idaho, Nebraska and parts of Texas could reopen earlier than other states.

The plan emerged as new research on Thursday estimated Covid-19-related deaths in the US could top 80,000 over the coming four months.

As many as 2,300 patients could die every day during the epidemic peak, set for some point in April, even if people observe strict social distancing, according to the study from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington's School of Medicine.

What's the reaction?

The president's get-back-to-workplan found unexpected support on Thursday from a prominent Democrat.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said statewide quarantine orders may not have been the best approach to coronavirus.

"Young people then quarantined with older people was probably not the best public health strategy," he told a press conference, "because the younger people could have been exposing the older people to an infection."

Mr Cuomo said a better way forward might be a "get-back-to-work strategy" in tandem with a public health strategy.

Public health experts on the White House task force have demurred when asked about reopening the country by Easter, suggesting the timeline should be "very flexible".

Can the president order everyone back to work?
No. On 16 March, he set a 15-day period to slow down the spread of Covid-19 by urging all Americans to drastically scale back their public interactions.

But those guidelines were voluntary and did not amount to a national order.

The US Constitution makes clear states have the power for maintaining public order and safety, which scholars say means it is the responsibility of governors to decide when virus-related restrictions get lifted.

Currently 21 US states have told residents to stay in their homes in order to contain the pandemic.

What's happening elsewhere in the US?
In other developments:

In the coronavirus hot zone of New York City, more than 6,400 emergency medical calls were placed over 24 hours on Tuesday, surpassing the total from the 9/11 attacks
Mark Blum, an actor who starred in Desperately Seeking Susan and Crocodile Dundee, has died aged 69 with coronavirus, says the Screen Actors Guild
Canada slammed a US proposal to deploy troops on their joint border to help fight the virus - the deputy prime minister said it would be "damaging to our relationship"
A supermarket in Pennsylvania said it had to destroy more than $35,000 worth of food after a woman intentionally coughed all over it in a coronavirus prank
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, coyotes are roaming the empty streets of the California city, after residents self-isolated to limit the spread of the virus