Ulaanbaatar
IMF Managing Director highlights successful implementation of EFF in Mongolia
Politics
Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/ On
September 20, Prime Minister U.Khurelsukh met with Managing Director of the
International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde and discussed outcomes of ‘Extended
Fund Facility’ Arrangement of the IMF and actions to be further taken.
The Prime Minister thanked IMF Managing Director and its staff for understanding situation of the country and supporting the policy of Mongolian government.
Emphasizing
the successful EFF implementation, Ms. Lagarde expressed her pleasure for the outcomes
including, effective policy implementation, satisfaction of target quantitative
indicators, budget sustainability as well as substantial improvements in reduction of debts and upgrade of credit rating.
Thanks to the EFF
implementation, Mongolia’s economic growth, which was at 1.2 percent in 2016,
reached 6.3 percent as of first half of 2018, with a projection to be around 8
percent in 2019.
Moreover, improvement of unity of budget and discipline triggered the recovery of fiscal indications, which often showed
deficiency before, and basic budget balance to be gainful in 2018 for the first
time. Additionally, the budget surplus is estimated to be equal to one percent of
Gross Domestic Product of 2019.
Ms. Lagarde underscored that
works on maintaining inflation rate at target level, increasing foreign currency
reserve to make banking sector healthy and improving legal environment have
been showing first outcomes.
Ms. Lagarde cautioned that as
Mongolia is sensitive to external and internal shocks, it is necessary to
create favorable investment environment, reduce budget deficiency and continue
increasing foreign currency reserve. It needs to work out actions against
possible shocks, added Ms. Lagarde.
In turn, Prime Minister U.Khurelsukh expressed commitment to realize the EFF, being co-implemented by Mongolian Government and the IMF, more effectually and pay attention on stabilizing economic growth and promote inclusive growth.
