⏰ Monetary Policy 2024 | Tax | Travel to Mongolia

POWERED BY

Hey! Wishing you a spooktacular Halloween filled with thrills and chills! 🎃👻🕷️

Today’s newsletter covers:

• Monetary Policy

• Tax Revenue

• 2024’s best destination to travel

Let’s dive in!

🧙‍♀️ Monetary Magic in 2024: What's in Store?

The Bank of Mongolia (BOM) has unveiled its preliminary framework for the government's monetary policy in the upcoming year. What can we expect for 2024?

Overall Objectives

Consistent with previous years, the Central Bank will continue to pursue a policy that prioritizes both external and internal economic stability within the country. This approach entails maintaining a medium-term inflation rate around 6%, with a target range of +/-2 percentage points.

• Key Emphasis: A central pillar of the current monetary policy will be the advancement of the banking and financial sector infrastructure.

Banking Sector Focus

This year, the aim is to enhance financial accessibility and promote steady growth in the banking sector. To achieve this, the BOM is planning to introduce independent branches and units of foreign banks into the domestic financial landscape. This move is expected to enhance competition and efficiency, reduce interest rates, bolster credit availability, and improve overall financial accessibility.

• Notably, Parliament has ratified legislation enabling specialized banking institutions for foreign investors, paving the way for foreign investors to establish specialized banks for their operations within Mongolia.

Fintech Support

In tandem with these financial market infrastructure enhancements, the BOM is committed to fostering the development of innovative fintech-based products and services for electronic payments and cross-border trade settlement. Also, effective oversight mechanisms for the payment system will be implemented, thereby facilitating significant progress in the fintech sector.

Entrepreneurial Perspectives

The Bank of Mongolia actively engaged with the business community to gather insights on monetary policy direction. Valuable suggestions emerged during these discussions, including the importance of maintaining exchange rate stability through increased foreign exchange reserves, exploring avenues to lower interest rates, and addressing public concerns related to financial fraud prevention. These inputs will be considered in our ongoing efforts to refine and enhance the monetary policy for 2024.

Closing the Money Bag

So, while they're keeping things tight with their monetary policy, the government's planning a big-budget party. The real question is, will this strict money plan play nice with the big budget? Let's see how this financial tale unfolds.

DATA STORY: Tax Revenue Accounts For Over 89% of Mongolia’s Budget Revenue

Mongolians are expected to pay ₮24.1 trillion in taxes next year. FYI, As of last September, the budget revenue has reached ₮17.7 billion. Tax revenue accounts for 89.6% of the country's budget revenue, with income tax making up the lion's share at 27.5%.

🗺 2024’s best destination to travel: Land of The Eternal Blue Sky

Did you know that Mongolia was named the best country to travel in 2024 by Lonely Planet, the leading travel media company?

Where to travel?

Lonely Planet's newly released Best in Travel 2024 book names the top 10 countries, regions, and cities to visit next year, as well as the best value and sustainable destinations. Mongolia is named the best in travel country along with India and St Lucia. About the cities, Nairobi and Paris are the top 2 cities to visit in 2024, followed by 3 North American cities: Montreal, Philadelphia, and Kansas.

What to know before going to Mongolia?

First and foremost don’t forget to check whether your country is on the list of visa-free countries to enter Mongolia. If it is not, no need to worry, visas are mostly online now. In case your country is not included in the online form, you’ll have to visit one of the diplomatic missions of Mongolia.

Secondly, flights to and from Mongolia are available year-round on MIAT Mongolian National Airlines and other international carriers, such as Aeroflot, Air China, and Korean Air.

Little tricks

• Be prepared for long travel distances. Mongolia is a large country that can take days to travel between major destinations.

• Pack for all types of weather. Mongolia's weather can change quickly, so it is important to pack for all eventualities. Keep it in your mind, even in the winter the sun is pretty strong here.

• Not into planning at all? Choose a travel agency. There’s a myriad of them on Google.

• Be respectful of Mongolian culture and customs. Mongolia is a deeply Buddhist country, so it is important to be respectful of local beliefs and traditions.

• Learn a few basic Mongolian phrases. This will help you get around and communicate with locals.

Lastly, Mongolia could be a whole new world, if you never travel here. So don’t expect anything but be prepared for everything. 😉 

🏃 QUICK STORIES

🔵 The Mongolian startup, Gocare, received a $300,000 angel investment from Kazakhstan investors. With this funding, the startup company received a total investment of $650,000 from Google and angel investors at a $3 million valuation. For your information, the demo version of their startup has more than 70,000 users.

🔵 Mongolia's first exchange-traded fund (ETF) has launched. The ETF is issued by Invescore Asset Management LLC and is listed on the Ulaanbaatar Stock Exchange. In initial trading, only professional participants will participate in the trade, and secondary trading will start with the approval of the FRC.

🔵 Arig Bank reported a 241.9% YoY increase in net income, reaching ₮17 billion in Q3 2023. This is fueled by an 85.3% rise in net interest income to ₮14.3 billion. The non-performing loan ratio stands at 8.4%, while the NIM has increased to 4%, marking a 0.4 percentage point increase from Q3 2022.

🔵 The $500 million bond issued by The Development Bank of Mongolia, featuring an interest rate of 7.25%, has been matured. Last week, Fitch Ratings assessed DBM's default rating as 'B.' This assessment was influenced by a lack of timely preparedness for 2 major bond maturities amid unfavorable market conditions, including this bond.

⭐ TOP NEWS

• Story: For this Mongolian Engineer, Her Country Became Her Career (DWAkademie)

• Report: Steppe Gold’s Corporate Update (SteppeGold)

• Partnership: Mongolia to Advance Sustainable and Resilient Urban Growth (U.S.EmbassyinMongolia)

Partnership Inquiries:
Place an ad

Editor: E.Zolbayar
Writer: M.Khulan & G.Aminaa

Disclaimer: The information Inside Mongolia provides is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended to be or constitute financial advice, trading advice, or any other advice. The decision whether to consider the information we provide is solely our readers' independent decision.