Mongolia’s foreign trade surplus reaches USD 1.5 billion in 2019 www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/. In 2019, Mongolia traded with 152 countries from all over the world and total trade turnover reached USD 13.7 billion, of which USD 7.6 billion were exports and USD 6.1 billion were imports. Total foreign trade turnover increased by USD 860.6 (6.7%) million, of which exports increased by USD 608.0 million (8.7%) and imports increased by USD 252.6 million (8.0%) compared to the same period of previous year.

Mongolian foreign trade balance has been in surplus since 2014 and foreign trade surplus reached USD 1.5 billion in 2019, increased by USD 355.4 million (31.3%) from previous year.

In December 2019, exports and imports reached to USD 564.2 million and USD 543.6 million, respectively. Compared to the previous month, exports increased by USD 37.3 million and imports increased by USD 24.4 million.

In December 2019, foreign trade surplus reached to USD 20.5 million. Compared to the previous month, foreign trade surplus increased by USD 12.9 million.

In total turnover, trades with two neighbor countries China and Russia have highest shares where trade with China was USD 8.9 billion in 2019, which is 64.4% of total goods turnover and 89.1 percent of exports.

In total export goods to China, 44 percent was coal and 26.4 percent was copper concentrate. While 77.5% of total export goods to the United Kingdom, 76.7% of total export goods to Singapore and 98.8% of total export goods to Switzerland were gold.

In 2019, imports by main countries, China share to 33.6%, Russia share to 28.2%, Japan share to 9.6%, USA share to 4.7% and Korea share to 4.4% of total imports.

Petroleum products share to 55.8% of Russia’s imports, Cars share to 60.9% of Japan’s imports, trucks share to 13.8% of China’s imports and there are many different types of products share to other percent.

The 608.0 million increase in exports from the same period of previous year was mainly due to the increases in exports of USD 288.2 million in bituminous coal and USD 273.9 million in raw or semi-manufactured gold.

Before the discovery of the major mining sites, agriculture was main economic sector of Mongolia. In 2019 by preliminary estimate, Mongolia exported USD 132.2 million meat and meat products, which is USD 17.2 million or 27.4% lower compared to previous year.

Export of washed cashmere increased by USD 46.3 million, while export of combed raw cashmere decreased by USD 9.6 million. Export of both washed cashmere and combed raw cashmere makes up to 4.3 percent of total export.

The USD 252.6 million increase in imports from the same period of previous year was mainly due to USD 46.5 million increase in mineral products imports, especially, USD 92.6 million increase in diesel imports and USD 267.0 million increase in imports of transport vehicles and its spare parts. In 2019, Mongolia imported 94065 vehicles, in which 69472 were cars. Imported cars increased by 5433 or 8.5% from previous year.

Exports of mineral products, textiles and textile articles, natural or cultured stones, precious metals jewelry made up 94.9 percent of total export. On the other hand, 68.9 percent of imports was mineral products, machinery, equipment, electric appliances, transport vehicle and its spare parts and food products.

Source: National Statistics Office of Mongolia

Currency intervention in January exceeds USD 200 million www.zgm.mn

Since the beginning of 2020, the Bank of Mongolia (BoM) provided a total of currency worth USD 213.9 million to stabilize the domestic market. The central bank auctioned USD 38.9 million in the foreign exchange market on Thursday. As the Bank of Mongolia (BoM) reported previously, Mongolia had received several fundings worth less than USD 100 billion since the beginning of 2020. Particularly, the World Bank granted additional funding of USD 100 billion to the country as well as the Asian Development Bank (ADB). In the private sector, XacBank is scheduled to receive USD 100 million in co-financing from the Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank (FMO). The five-year tenor of the loan is expected to strengthen XacBank’s long-term funding base and allow the bank to further grow and expand in its focus areas in retail, micro and small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), the bank reported earlier. In terms of funding source, FMO will provide USD 65 million, the OPEC International Development Fund USD 25 million, and the International Economic Cooperation Bank USD 10 million respectively. ADB also provided USD 100 million last year. According to the central bank, the foreign exchange reserves of Mongolia reached USD 4.2 billion, up 20 percent from the same period over the last year.

Mongolia’s population reaches 3.3 million www.news.mn

According to preliminary data, the population of Mongolia reached 3.3 million at the end of 2019 with an increase of 63.1 thousand (1.9%) on the previous year.

Australia to support Mongolia on the removal from “Grey List” www.akipress.com

Speaker of the Parliament of Mongolia G.Zandanshatar met Speaker of the House of Representatives of Australia Tony Smith during his attendance to the 28th Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum which is being held in Australia, Montsame reported.
Expressing his condolences in connection with bushfires in Australian states of Queensland and New South Wales, which is causing huge damage and loss of human lives, Speaker of the Parliament G.Zandanshatar noted that the Government of Mongolia and its people living in Australia are rendering humanitarian aid. Moreover, the Speaker congratulated Mr. Tony Smith and the Parliament of Australia on organizing the 28th Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum successfully regardless of this concern.

Leonardo DiCaprio pays $95,000 for his own Revenant-style adventure in Mongolia www.nomadicofbluesky.com

After battling freezing temperatures for the Oscar nominated adventure film The Revenant, Leonardo DiCaprio has paid $95,000 (£66,000) for his very own real-life survivalist expedition to Mongolia.

Prime Minister visits Bor-Undur fluorspar mine www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. Prime Minister U.Khurelsukh is working in some aimags these days. During his working trip to Bor-Undur soum of Khentii aimag, PM U.Khurelsukh visited the mine site of Bor – Undur Mine and Ore Dressing Plant.

Yuan rate against tugrik mounts since last year www.zgm.mn

The CNY rate against Mongolian tugrik has been strengthening since 2019. According to the official rate announced by the Bank of Mongolia (BoM), yuan stood at MNT 398.51 on Wednesday. China has a bigger impact on Mongolia’s foreign trade. The South neighbor of Mongolia has reduced its yuan rate to decrease trade deficits and thus support exports. Particularly, China pursued monetary policies to overcome the trade dispute with the United States at a low cost.The yuan rate has relatively increased by MNT 13 over the past three months. In the meantime. Mongolia is planning to increase its trade turnover with China to USD 10 billion this year. However, if the yuan is still unstable, Mongolia may see a slight loss further. Domestic demand of China, which consumes half of the global commodity supply, had lightly weakened. At the same time, the People’s Bank of China has reduced the required amount of commercial banking stocks and expanded the cash flow to market to mitigate its economic slowdown. This has created inexpensive sources to support the business and provided up to USD 115 billion from its banking system.

Unenbat: Government should not interfere with commercial banks’ activity www.zgm.mn

Executive Director of Mongolian Bankers Association, Unenbat Jigjid gave an interview to discuss the recent decision of the Government to repay pension loans up to MNT six billion and its effect on the economy. He also named the fiscal discipline as one of the main aspects that can define the 2020 outlook.

China remains top destination for Mongolia exports in 2019 www.xinhuanet.com

China remained the top export destination for Mongolia's goods in 2019, an economic statistician at the Mongolian National Statistics Office reported Thursday.

Facebook to open Mongolian ‘War Room’ www.news.mn

Social media giant Facebook will set up a ‘war room’ to counter misinformation and interference in in the upcoming Mongolian parliamentary election scheduled for June 2020.