Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/. In the first 11 months of 2021, Mongolia traded with 156 countries from all over the world, and the total trade turnover reached USD 15.0 billion, of which USD 8.8 billion were exports and USD 6.2 billion were imports. The total foreign trade turnover increased by USD 3.3 billion (27.9 percent), where exports increased by USD 2.0 billion (28.8 percent) and imports increased by USD 1.3 billion (26.6 percent) compared to the same period of the previous year.

In November 2021, exports reached USD 1.3 billion, increased by USD 182.2 million (16.2 percent) and imports reached USD 542.8 million, increased by USD 24.2 million (4.7 percent) compared to the previous month.

The foreign trade balance was in surplus of USD 2.6 billion in the first 11 months of 2021, increased by USD 673.3 million (34.2 percent) compared to the previous year. In November 2021, the trade balance surplus reached USD 763.5 million, increased by USD 158.0 million (26.1 percent) from previous month. The trade with China reached USD 9.7 billion in the first 11 months of 2021, which is 64.6 percent of the total trade turnover.

Bituminous coal and copper concentrates accounted for 31.5 percent and 38.6 percent of total exports to China, respectively, gold accounted for 98.1 percent and 65.7 percent of total export to Switzerland and the Republic of Korea.

In the first 11 months of 2021, USD 2.0 billion increase in exports from the previous year was resulted from USD 1.3 billion increase in copper concentrates and USD 608.3 million increase in coal exports.

Also, increase in export was due to rising world prices for mining products. For example, the export of copper concentrate volume is same as compared to the previous year, however the value increased by 85.5 percent compared to the previous year. In November of 2021, USD 182.2 million increase in exports from the previous month was mainly due to USD 155.6 million increase in coal exports.

In the first 11 months of 2021, 37.9 percent of the total imports were from China, 27.7 percent -- from Russia, 6.6 percent -- from Japan, 4.3 percent -- from the Republic of Korea, 3.3 percent -- from Germany and 3.1 percent -- from USA, which are accounting for 83.1 percent of the total imports.

In the first 11 months 2021, 50.8 percent of the total imports from Russia were petroleum products, 70.5 percent of the total imports from Japan -- cars, and 5.0 percent of the total imports from China -- electricity, 11.9 percent -- trucks and 83.1 percent -- imports of other products. The USD 1.3 billion increase in imports from the previous year was mainly due to USD 37.3 million increase in wheat, USD 112.5 million increase in trucks, USD 83.8 million increase in cars and USD 126.9 million increase in diesel.

Exports of mineral products, natural or cultured stones, precious metal, jewelry and textile articles products made up 96.4 percent of the total export. On the other hand, 64.3 percent of the total imports were mineral products, machinery, equipment, electric appliances, transport vehicle and its spare parts and food products.

Source: National Statistics Office