Mongolia's economy did well last year, growing by 6.9%. The foreign trade surplus for the first 11 months reaches $5.4 billion. Good news continued as inflation dropped from 12.3% to 8.6%.
Now, let's check out some numbers for 2023 to see how the year went for the economy.
- $4.3 billion: The foreign exchange reserves increased a lot this year. In November, it went up by 46.5% from the previous year, reaching $4.3 billion.
- 0.8%: At the start of the year, $1 equaled ₮3,445, but now the ₮ is 0.8% stronger than USD. ₮ also got stronger against other currencies: by 8.7% against the yen, 22.4% against the ruble, 3.3% against the yuan, and 3.7% against the won.
- 13%: The interest rate stayed the same this year at 13%. Last year, the Bank of Mongolia hiked it 5 times in a row to 13%. The reason is that the average inflation this year was 10.6%, higher than what the Bank of Mongolia expected, so they kept the strict monetary policy.
- $791.4 million: The first nine months of this year saw a surplus of $791.4 million in the balance of payments, the highest ever recorded. The current account, which was $1.8 billion in deficit last year, now has a surplus of $606.7 million. This happened because of more exports and a good trade balance.
This year was all about recovering the economy by selling more raw materials. The Ministry of Finance thinks the economy will grow by 7% next year, but there are some risks, like raw material prices dropping and less demand for mining products.
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