Imports dropped by 20.5 percent in October

Economy
unurzul@montsame.mn
2021-11-19 10:35:28

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/. In the first 10 months of 2021, Mongolia traded with 151 countries from all over the world, and the total trade turnover reached USD 13.2 billion, of which USD 7.5 billion were exports and USD 5.6 billion were imports. The total foreign trade turnover increased by USD 2.7 billion (26.3 percent), where exports increased by USD 1.5 billion (25.7 percent) and imports increased by USD 1.2 billion (27.2 percent) compared to the same period of the previous year.


In October 2021, exports reached USD 1.1 billion, increased by USD 318.3 million (39.5 percent) and imports reached USD 518.6 million, decreased by USD 134.0 million (20.5 percent) compared to the previous month.


The foreign trade balance was in surplus of USD 1.9 billion in the first 10 months of 2021, increased by USD 329.3 million compared to the previous year. In October 2021, trade balance surplus reached USD 605.5 million and increased by USD 452.4 million from previous month. Trade with China reached USD 8.7 billion in the first 10 months of 2021, which is 66.4 percent of the total trade turnover.


Bituminous coal and copper concentrates accounted for 27.8 percent and 40.4 percent of total exports to China, respectively, gold accounted for 99.7 percent and 70.1 percent of total export to Switzerland and the Republic of Korea. In the first 10 months of 2021, USD 1.5 billion increase in exports from the previous year was resulted from USD 378.9 million increase in iron ores and concentrates and USD 1.3 billion increase in copper concentrates exports.


Also, increase in export was due to rising world prices for mining products. For example, exports of copper concentrate volume increased by 1.7 percent, however value increased by 95.0 percent compared to the previous year.


In October of 2021, the USD 318.3 million increase in exports from the previous month was mainly due to USD 261.1 million increase in coal exports.


In the first 10 months of 2021, 39.7 percent of the total imports were from China, 26.5 percent -- from Russia, 6.4 percent -- from Japan, 4.3 percent -- from the Republic of Korea, 3.4 percent -- from Germany and 3.1 percent -- from USA, which are accounting for 83.4 percent of the total imports.


In the first 10 months 2021, 49.1 percent of the total imports from Russia were petroleum products, 69.6 percent of the total imports from Japan were cars, and 4.6 percent of the total imports from China were electricity, 12.3 percent were trucks and 83.1 percent were imports of other products. The USD 1.2 billion increase in imports from the previous year was mainly due to the USD 37.3 million increase in wheat, USD 125.6 million increase in trucks, USD 58.7 million increase in cars and USD 112.1 million increase in diesel.


Exports of mineral products, natural or cultured stones, precious metal, jewelry and textile articles products made up 95.9 percent of the total export. On the other hand, 63.7 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