Total foreign trade turnover reached 10.42 billion USD in the first 10 months of 2020, with export exceeding import by 1.55 billion USD, reported the General Customs Authority

.

Trade turnover rose by 1.34 billion USD in October but compared to the same period of last year, it has decreased by 1.17 billion USD (10.1 percent). Goods amounting to 5.99 billion USD were exported in the first 10 months of 2020, showing 8.3 percent decline year-on-year.

The authority highlighted that import volume has consistently declined more than export volume, leading to positive foreign trade turnover.

Out of exports, minerals amounted 4.23 billion USD (70.6 percent of total exports); natural or cultured pearls, precious or semi-precious stones amounted to 1.32 billion USD (22.1 percent); raw hides and skins, leather and fur skins equaled to 6.9 million USD (0.1 percent); and textiles and textile articles amounted to 254.3 million USD (4.2 percent).

Mongolia has exported goods to 68 foreign countries, including China (73.8 percent), Switzerland (20.3 percent), the UK (1.4 percent), and Singapore (2.2 percent). All exports of crude oil, iron ores and concentrates, zinc ores and copper concentrates went to China, along with 95.2 percent of total coal exports, 76.2 percent of fluorspar concentrate exports, and most of exported raw hides, animal skins and washed cashmere. Over 80 percent of total combed cashmere export went to Italy and 29 percent of fluorspar concentrate exports to Russia.

Mongolia sold 91.1 percent of exported gold to Switzerland, 4.8 percent to Singapore, and 4.1 percent to the UK.

On the other hand, Mongolia imported goods from 138 different countries, namely China (36.5 percent), Russia (25.8 percent), Japan (7.8 percent), USA (4.7 percent), South Korea (4.4 percent), Germany (3.3 percent), and other countries. As of October 2020, import amounted to 4.43 billion USD, down by 630 million USD or 12 percent year-on-year.

A breakdown of imported goods show that the majority were machinery, equipment and electric appliances (20.4 percent of total imports), minerals (18.2 percent), vehicles and aircrafts (16.6 percent), and products of animal or vegetable origin and foodstuff (12.3 percent).

Goods worth 39.5 million USD have been imported as foreign aid from international financial and economic organizations and donor countries. By country of origin, 73.6 percent came from the USA, 5.3 percent from Austria, 4.6 percent from China, 4.5 percent from Germany, and 3.4 percent from Switzerland. Most of the donated goods came from the USA (75.2 percent), Austria (12.3 percent), and Japan (2.7 percent).

Goods valued at 65.6 million USD were imported as foreign loan by the international financial and economic organizations and donor countries and these goods came from different countries, including China (56.1percent), Austria (7.1 percent), and Belarus (15.8 percent).