Mongolian Export Revenue Drops 3.3% as Coal Prices Decline

Mineral-rich Mongolia’s export income dropped in the first five months of this year as a result of falling coal prices paid by China, the nation’s largest trading partner.

Mongolia’s exports fell 3.3 percent to $1.64 billion in the first five months of this year from the same period last year, the National Statistics Office said in a release on its website yesterday. The value of coal shipments declined 44 percent to $448.6 million, while volumes dropped 14 percent to 6.33 million tons, according to the statement.

In April, the World Bank cut a forecast for 2013 Mongolian economic growth to 13 percent from 16 percent, citing declines in exports and foreign investment. Economic growth in China, which bought 87 percent of Mongolian exports in five months through May, slowed to 7.7 percent in the first quarter from 7.9 percent in the last three months of 2012.

Imports were $2.47 billion in the period, down 6.8 percent from the same period a year earlier, leaving a trade deficit of $824.7 million, according to the statistics bureau.

The value of gold shipments more than tripled to $126.2 million in the first five months from $38.9 million a year ago, according to the agency. Three tons of gold was exported compared with 0.9 tons a year earlier, the statistics office said.

Mongolia exported 1.79 million barrels of oil during the first five months of the year, up from 1.26 million barrels a year earlier, the statistics office said. The value of the exports rose 33 percent to $169.5 million this year.

Exports of iron ore were 2.32 million tons during the first five months of the year, falling from 2.39 million tons in the same period last year, the statistics office said. The value of the shipments rose 56 percent to $262.4 million from $168.2 million a year ago, according to the agency.

The nation’s consumer prices rose 9.7 percent in May from a year earlier and gained 0.3 percent from April, the agency said. The number of registered unemployed fell to 40,500, the statistics office said, a 30 percent decrease from the same period last year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Kohn in Ulaanbaatar at mkohn5@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Panckhurst at ppanckhurst@bloomberg.net

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