The country’s economy expanded 8.6 percent year-onyear in the first quarter of this year, which was the strongest GDP growth rate since the third quarter of 2014 when the figure stood at 9.1 percent.

The World Bank has predicted that Mongolia’s economy would grow by 7.2 percent in 2019 and 6.9 percent in 2020, but the Bank of Mongolia (BoM) predicted GDP growth at 6.9 percent in 2019.

Total equilibrated revenue and grants of the General government budget amounted to MNT 6.0 trillion and total expenditure and net lending amounted to MNT 5.5 trillion, resulting a surplus of MNT 535.3 billion in the equilibrated balance.

Current account deficit reached USD 683.6 million, which was mainly due to USD 898.3 million deficit in services account and USD 754.8 million deficit in primary account.

In addition, CPI rose 4.8 percent from the end of the previous year due to increases in prices for food and non-alcoholic beverages group by 13.9 percent, meat and meat products by 38.7 percent and clothing, cloth and footwear each group by 4.0 percent in July 2019.

The Asian Development Bank predicted inflation at 8.5 percent in 2019. It also assumed growth in domestic demand as a result of increased expenditures and the depreciation of the MNT and fuel prices in the late half of 2018 as main indicators to the inflation rate.

The financial boost to support their training was handed over by Kawauchi Shiro, Japan’s Cultural Envoy to Mongolia, to Mongolia’s Minister of Education, Culture, Science and Sports, Yo.Baatarbileg, earlier this month.

The minister met the Japanese envoy to express gratitude for the promotion of Mongolian traditional culture and heritage in Japan and the development of baseball and judo in Mongolia as well as humanitarian works. During the meeting, Shiro handed over the grant of 50 million MNT.

This money will support athletes to take part in the 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics in Tokyo.

During the visit, Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana will hold meetings with U.Khurelsukh, Prime Minister of Mongolia, D.Tosgtbaatar, Minister of Foreign Affairs, N.Tserenbat, Minister of Environment and Tourism, Ts.Davaasuren, Minister of Energy, L.Khaltar, Deputy Minister of Road and Transportation Development, and B.Bayarsaikhan, chairman of the National Development Agency.

Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana will give a speech at the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Ulaanbaatar Conference as a guest.

D.Bulgamaa from a project “Green Gold-livestock health” of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation in Mongolia introduced about a nationwide network that conducts monitoring activities on pastureland use and performs an annual study on 1500 points throughout the country. “The study, which released nationwide reports in 2015 and 2018 to put forward to the Government of Mongolia, concluded that 65 percent of total pastureland of Mongolia, mostly in the central region, had hit by some forms of land degradation. However, pasture renovation is possible for 90 percent of those deteriorated grazing land with the help of alleviation of the burden on pastureland by allowing alternative use of grazing land. Also, the number of livestock animals should reconcile with pasture carrying capacity. In order to do this, the animal quality should be improved to encourage sales of the animals”.

The meeting highlighted that it has become important to raise herders’ awareness on this issue and use a mean of economic incentive to increase herders’ willingness. Officials from the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry expressed their position that 20 million livestock animals should be put into economic circulation in order to prevent from pasture degradation.

At the meeting, Byron Shelton, Senior Program Director of the Savory Institute and Rolf Pretorius of the Olive Leaf Foundation introduced about the activities of the Savory Institute and outcomes of their study carried out on pasture land in Ider soum of Zavkhan aimag and Ikh Tamir soum of Arkhangai aimag. The Savory Institute is a worldwide nonprofit organization that promotes large-scale restoration of the world's grasslands through holistic management to address the global issues of desertification, climate change, and food and water insecurity.

On the conditions and management of pastureland of Mongolia, Byron Shelton said the pastureland management in Mongolia is what plays an important role, not the number of livestock animals. If it continues that way, overgrazing is quite near and the land would probably face the risk of desertification or even more serious problems. Therefore, herders should use grazing land, considering the grazing readiness and growth period. The participants also exchanged opinions on improving the quality of fine wool sheep breeds “Khangai” and “Orkhon” and their benefits.

The Asian country's GDP totaled 8.6 trillion Mongolian tugriks (3.2 billion U.S. dollars) in the January-June period and the growth was mainly attributed to good performance in the industry, services and mining sectors, which recorded 9.3, 7.4 and 13 percent growth respectively, according to the NSO.

The mineral-rich country's economy expanded 8.6 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of this year, which was the strongest GDP growth rate since the third quarter of 2014 when the figure stood at 9.1 percent.

The World Bank has predicted that Mongolia's economy would grow by 7.2 percent in 2019 and 6.9 percent in 2020.

The third expo’s co-organizers are Mongolia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Technology, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Road and Transport Development, Customs General Administration, General Agency for Specialized Inspection, Ulaanbaatar Railway JSC, and the Agency for Standardization and Metrology.

Head of Department of SME and Cooperative Policy Implementation of the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry Ya.Erdenesaikhan said, “Meetings and forum on the development of economic cooperation and trade and investment discussions will be held at the expo besides a trade fair for promoting Mongolian-made products to the Chinese market.” A cashmere forum, exhibition, and fashion show are also planned to be organized.

Furthermore, an exhibition about Mongolia’s culture and traditions will be mounted in one of the three venues, Ulanqab. The expo’s theme will be about tourism, agriculture, and mining. One of the events featured in the expo program is the Northeast Asia Regional Cooperation Forum to be attended by around 700 representatives. Other events include a forum on Mongolian and Chinese legal services in trade, Mongolia-China standardization cooperation forum, Mongolia-China-Russia education forum, second Mongolia-China technology transfer forum, and cashmere forum between Mongolia, Russia, China, Italy, and South Korea.

Officials highlighted that the Mongolia-China Expo 2019 coinciding with the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Mongolia and China will be of importance in achieving the goal to bring trade turnover between the two countries to USD 10 million by 2020.

The guests will deliver speeches and have informative and constructive discussions on “U.S.-Mongolia Relations: Moving Forward with Strategic Partnership”. The meeting will be held on August 26 at Blue Sky Hotel & Tower in Ulaanbaatar.

The American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Mongolia is an independent membership-driven organization that seeks to build, strengthen, and protect business between the United States and Mongolia and to actively promote Mongolia as a destination for American investment.

AmCham Mongolia is accredited by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as its official affiliate in Mongolia.

"The aviation group comprises eight helicopters - four Mi-24 helicopter gunships and four Mi-8AMTSh assault transport helicopters," the press service said.

The helicopters will provide fire support and reconnaissance for Russian and Mongolian forces taking part in the exercises.

The Russian-Mongolian military exercise, headlined Selenga after the river that originates in Mongolia and flows into Russia’s Lake Baikal, are held on an annual basis. This year, the drills will be held at Mongolia’s Munh Hat range on August 15-24. They will involve over 1,000 servicemen from both sides.

The Eastern Military District said in July it would also send motorized rifles and tank units, a mortar battery, MLRS, self-propelled artillery, NCB protection, reconnaissance and a medical team.

Ministry of Defense is working as contractor of the apartment construction and building companies in Dornogobi aimag are also taking part. The apartment complex will have staff apartments, an office building, primary and high schools and a kindergarten. The financing is being made from the Development Bank of Mongolia. Infrastructure development works of the oil refinery are now underway and as the MONTSAME News Agency has reported recently, construction of a railroad to the oil refinery is already complete. According to plan, the oil refinery with a processing capacity of 1.5 million tons per year is projected to put into full operation in 2022.

However, monthly average spending per households have also risen to MNT 1.3 million; an increase of 203.5 thousand from July, 2018, due to an increase of non-foods products and other expenses by MNT 159.4 thousand.

In the first quarter of 2019, household revenue can be grouped as follows:

– Households that have monthly revenue of less than MNT 300,000 increased by 38.5 thousand,

– Households that have monthly revenue of MNT 300,000-500,000 increased by 20.9 thousand,

– Households that have monthly revenue of MNT 1.6-2.1 million increased by 24.6 thousand,

– Households that have monthly revenue above MNT 2.1 million increased by 39.9 million.