ULAN BATOR, June 19 (Xinhua) -- Bank of Mongolia, the central bank of the country, on Wednesday decided to maintain the benchmark interest rate unchanged at 11 percent.
"Considering the external economic environment and internal economic activity, inflation is likely to be stabilized around the target level of 8 percent. So we decided to leave the benchmark interest rate unchanged at 11 percent as needed to stabilize inflation around the target rate and maintain macroeconomic stability in the medium term," Byadran Lkhagvasuren, vice chairman of the bank, told a press conference.
"Mongolia's economic growth has regained its strength. Growth in mining sector surpassed expectations and foreign direct investment inflows to the country increased in the first quarter of this year," he added.
The resource-rich Asian country's gross domestic product expanded 8.6 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2019, amounting 3.5 trillion Mongolian tugriks (about 1.3 billion U.S. dollars).
