Mongolia
On the dry Mongolian Plateau, steadier plant cover comes with less growth, a study finds
A study of 306 grassland sites on the Mongolian Plateau, 286 of them in China’s Inner Mongolia, finds that the drier the site, the more its plants trade biomass for water-use efficiency and steadier greenness. Mongolia measures its own fight against land degradation in trees planted, 140 million so far against a billion promised by 2030.
Mongolia’s committees close the budget revision and push the deficit cap back to 2%
Mongolia’s Budget Standing Committee finished the fourth discussion of the 2026 budget revision on Tuesday and sent it to the plenary, the parliament’s press office said, while a joint session with the Economic Standing Committee backed, by 71.2% of those present, a proposal to keep the deficit cap in the Fiscal Stability Law at 2% of GDP against the 3% in the government’s bill.
Mongolia’s budget revision goes back to committee as the ruling party sets 20 October
Mongolia’s parliament sent the third reading of the 2026 budget revision back to its Budget Standing Committee on Monday, by 68.6% of the members present, to revisit two rejected proposals: a higher care allowance for citizens with disabilities and the education ministry’s lease payments. The ruling party’s faction chair Zh. Batjargal said it must pass by 20 October, ahead of the pension and pay rises due on 1 November.
Mongolia’s Democrats demand a confidence vote on Uchral as the Khural debates the budget
The Democratic Party’s political council asked on Friday that Prime Minister Uchral put a question of confidence to the Khural, party leader Tsogtgerel said, after its first demand, the dismissal of defence minister Batlut, went unanswered. The parliament sat the same day on the 2026 budget rewrite, with votes set for 17:00, and the industry minister said 78,000 tonnes of petrol are contracted from Russia for October.
Astana and Ulaanbaatar set a $500 million trade target against $133.5 million last year
The 10th session of the Kazakhstan-Mongolia intergovernmental commission met in Astana on Thursday and signed a protocol that aims the two countries’ trade at $500 million under their 2025 to 2027 roadmap, Mongolia’s foreign ministry said. Kazakhstan’s agriculture ministry put 2025 trade at $133.5 million, with $123 million of it Kazakh exports, so the target is almost 4 times last year’s turnover.
ADB's president promises Mongolia $1.3 billion by 2027 and signs $455 million in a week
Asian Development Bank president Masato Kanda announced plans to invest $1.3 billion in Mongolia by 2027 during a visit in which he met President Khurelsukh, received the Friendship Medal and spoke at the CAREC ministerial conference, the bank said on Thursday. Three loans signed this week come to $455 million for provincial health, schools and disaster preparedness.
China's refiners halt fuel exports for October, and Mongolia has 18,000 tonnes on order
Chinese refiners have halted exports of petrol, diesel and jet fuel for October to every destination but Hong Kong and Macau, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing 4 sources. Mongolia has ordered 8,000 tonnes of petrol and more than 10,000 of diesel from China for the month, Kyrgyzstan thanked Beijing last week for stable supplies, and Russia's producers' diesel export ban runs to 31 October.
Drivers circle Sukhbaatar Square as Mongolia's opposition moves on the cabinet
Cars circled Ulaanbaatar's central square on 1 October in protest at a petrol shortage that began in July. In parliament, a Democratic Party MP read out the loan ledger behind a ₮500 billion fuel-storage programme and said the whole cabinet must answer, while his party collects signatures to bring down the government. The fuel headquarters and the Khural plenary sit at 14:00 Ulaanbaatar time.
Mongolia’s newest petrol train is 5 to 6 days of use, and Russia keeps its diesel ban to 31 October
The 13,000 tonnes of AI-92 petrol that reached Ulaanbaatar by rail in 217 wagons cover 5 to 6 days of normal use, the head of the oil department at the Mineral Resources and Petroleum Authority, D. Davaabayar, said at a briefing on Wednesday. Sixty-eight of the wagons had reached the unloading station. The same morning Russia’s government extended its producers’ ban on diesel exports to 31 October.
Takaichi and Uchral: 35 minutes, an exchange of notes on the airport loan and a JETRO office
Takaichi Sanae received Nyam-Osor Uchral on Tuesday at 17:45 for 35 minutes and a working dinner, Tokyo’s foreign ministry said. The two welcomed the exchange of notes on the yen loan for the Chinggis Khaan airport expansion, agreed to open a JETRO office in Mongolia and to start talks on a tax convention, and Japan backed Mongolia’s bid for a Security Council seat in 2047.
Mongolia signs a ¥158.3 billion JICA loan at 1.1% over 40 years to triple its main airport
Finance minister Z. Mendsaikhan and JICA’s president Tanaka Akihiko signed the financing agreement for the Chinggis Khaan airport expansion on Tuesday, during Prime Minister Uchral’s visit to Japan, MNB reported on Wednesday morning. The loan is ¥158.3 billion at a fixed 1.1% a year over 40 years, with 10 years’ grace on principal. Capacity rises from 1.6 million to 5.2 million passengers a year.
Russia locks away its fuel export data, and the region loses the numbers behind its diesel
Decree 686, published on Monday, bars anyone in Russia from publishing what its fuel exporters ship, to whom, at what price and through which port, plus refinery output and exchange sales of petrol and diesel. Companies may disclose their own figures; the government has 10 days to list the goods covered. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Mongolia, whose Russian diesel intake doubled in August, lose the exporter's side of the count.
ADB lends Mongolia $100 million against disasters that killed 726 people in a decade
The Asian Development Bank approved a $100 million loan on Monday for the National Emergency Management Agency: firefighting vehicles, search and rescue, and a digital risk system with early warning. Its ledger for 2015 to 2024 counts more than 40,500 disasters, 726 deaths, 11.5 million livestock lost and ₮1.9 trillion of damage.
Mongolia’s finance minister splits the 3 trillion tugrik Oyu Tolgoi dividend before it arrives: 1 trillion to citizens’ accounts, 2 trillion to the budget, by a one-off law
Finance minister Z. Mendsaikhan told a briefing at the State Palace on Thursday that the 3 trillion tugrik dividend expected from Oyu Tolgoi in 2027 will be spent under a one-off law, since the dividend is not a permanent budget revenue: 1 trillion into citizens’ named accounts in the accumulation fund and 2 trillion into current budget spending, on pensions, civil servants’ pay, loans to small business at 10%, mortgages and infrastructure, Ikon reported at 14:48 Ulaanbaatar time. MP G. Ganbaatar had said in the same building at 12:05 that the National Wealth Fund law of 19 April 2024 sends the dividend to citizens’ accounts, about 835,000 tugrik a person, and that “assorted thieving projects” cannot be financed from it.
One abstention, 15 chairs and a date in the law: 3 parliaments count in one week
Astana’s new council produced a single dissenter and no dissent. Ulaanbaatar’s committees voted a budget at half a room. Bishkek’s deputies confirmed, 86 to none, an election day the calendar had fixed for them. The old Commonwealth between the empires knew all 3 arithmetics. The last one ended it.
Mongolia’s cabinet orders a coal pyrolysis plant at Baganuur for 600,000 tonnes of semi-coke a year, 67% owned by the sovereign fund, to be running by early 2028
The government decided at its regular meeting on Wednesday to build a coal pyrolysis plant on the Baganuur mine through a public-private partnership: 600,000 tonnes of semi-coke a year, a 40 MW power unit and 400 jobs, with construction starting in the fourth quarter of 2026 and commissioning in the first quarter of 2028, Montsame reported. Chinggis Khaan Sovereign Wealth Fund Holding is to hold 67% of the operating company, Baganuur Coal-Chemical Plant LLC, and the capital city 33%; the stated purpose is to cut Ulaanbaatar’s air pollution with a smokeless fuel.
The ADB and the EBRD publish their autumn forecasts a day apart: Central Asia and Mongolia grow 5.8% on one count while the Caucasus slips on the other
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development put Central Asia and Mongolia at 5.8% growth in 2026 and 5.3% in 2027 in its Regional Economic Prospects published on Thursday: Kyrgyzstan 8.7% this year, Tajikistan 7.9%, Uzbekistan 7.5%, Mongolia and Turkmenistan 6.3%, Kazakhstan 4.7%. The Asian Development Bank’s September Outlook, published on Wednesday, raised Uzbekistan to 7.0% from 6.7% after an 8.5% first half and Georgia to 6.3% from 5.5%, cut Tajikistan to 7.0% from 7.3% and Azerbaijan to 1.6% from 2.0%, and left Kazakhstan at 4.8%, Kyrgyzstan at 8.9%, Turkmenistan at 6.3%, Armenia at 5.0% and Mongolia at 5.7%. Its subregion, the Caucasus and Central and West Asia, slips to 3.7% for 2026 and 4.1% for 2027, a tenth of a point down on July on both years.
Mongolia’s committees clear the 2026 budget rewrite’s third reading with a 2 trillion tugrik deficit and back $450 million from the ADB and the ¥158.3 billion airport loan on one day
The State Great Khural’s security and foreign policy committee took the third reading of the 2026 budget amendment on Wednesday with 15 of its 29 members present and sent its conclusions to the budget committee, the parliament’s site reported: balanced revenue of 31.9 trillion tugrik, expenditure of 34.0 trillion and a deficit of 2.0 trillion, with 107.3 billion for tariff-loss subsidies, 92.7 billion for power stations, 150.0 billion for food reserves, 170.1 billion for wage rises and 1,440.9 billion in savings. On the same day a joint sitting of the budget and security committees, 29 of 56 members present, backed the government’s 2 loan drafts, the Asian Development Bank’s $450 million “financing general programme” by 56.3% of those present and Japan’s ¥158.3 billion loan for the Chinggis Khaan airport by 66.7%, and sent its minutes and conclusions to the government.
Mongolia’s new justice minister declares 3 apartments worth 2.2 billion tugrik and shares in at least 6 companies, the anti-corruption agency’s register shows
G. Temuulen, sworn in as justice and home affairs minister on Tuesday, holds 3 apartments with a combined declared value of 2.2 billion tugrik and shares in at least 6 companies, gogo.mn reported from the Anti-Corruption Agency’s declaration register in the first hour of Wednesday, naming TTEM, Euroconstruction, Harte Gold Corp, Khanburgedei, Yarlag and Taobao Mongol among them. Dorgio.mn’s reading of the same register when the ruling party nominated him on 17 September lists the first 5 with Chemostemics as the sixth, and adds vehicles at 1.2 billion tugrik, livestock at 523 million, deposits of 94 million, loans of 303 million, his own annual income of 75 million and his family’s of 134 million.
Mongolia’s parliament committee backs a 158 billion yen Japanese loan at 1.1% to expand the Chinggis Khaan airport by 2034
The State Great Khural’s economic standing committee voted on Wednesday to support the government’s request to negotiate an exchange of notes with Japan and a loan agreement of up to 158,284,000,000 yen at 1.1% a year, with the principal free of repayment for the first 10 years, for the expansion of the Chinggis Khaan International Airport, the parliament’s site reported. It adds 81,900 square metres to the airport and is timed for operation in 2034; finance minister Z. Mendsaikhan presented it, and 59.4% of the members present supported it. From the committee its opinion goes to the budget committee and to the security and foreign policy committee.