MPs,
bankers and other financial professionals, and academics were among those who
attended Monday’s workshop on policy issues facing Mongolia, organized jointly by the
Standing Committee on the Economy and the IMF Mongolia office. Chairing the
workshop, Speaker D.Demberel said the Mongolian economy was showing an upturn,
and the recent increase in the price of cashmere and other raw materials made
them optimistic about a brighter future.

At
the same time, he said, “many problems remain”, such as the cost of heating and
electricity, the seasonal shortage of meat and dairy products and inflation.
There will be more unemployment in areas where livestock died in great numbers,
the construction sector continues to be in crisis, and bank restructuring is
still to be taken up. The entire welfare system has to be reprogrammed, and the
budget deficit has to be kept within agreed limits.

IMF
Resident Representative P.Ramlogan gave a presentation on “Inflation: reasons,
factors and outcomes”. Steven Barnet spoke on “Monetary policy and inflation”, and
another IMF economist, Jan Gotschok, on how changes in the budget affect macroeconomics.