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Mongolian parliament to skip autumn break due to economic crisis, budget problems

Xinhua, October 7, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Mongolian parliament on Friday decided to skip its autumn break and continue its sessions to discuss budget stabilization measures and an economic rescue plan of the government.

Initially, the parliament was to take a scheduled break next week until Oct. 19 due to the upcoming local council elections.

However, top officials of the Mongolian government and the parliament decided that taking a break in the midst of an economic crisis is not appropriate.

The website of the Mongolian state-run news agency "Montsame" posted a parliamentary schedule for the next week, which showed that the parliament will discuss the budget laws and measures to stabilize the 2017 budget.

The Mongolian government said that it has finalized the economic rescue plan. The national security council composed of top officials including president, prime minister and speaker of the parliament will review the plan and approve it, and then the parliament is expected to review it.

According to the Mongolian Ministry of Finance, the 2017 budget deficit will be 2,589 billion tugrug or around 1.1 billion U.S. dollars, nearly 9 percent of the land-locked country's GDP. It is planning to trim unnecessary government costs.

Also the Mongolian government proposed to reduce corporate tax for about 4,700 businesses working in four areas: food production, garment and textile production, construction materials production, agricultural farming and livestock animal farming. The move aimed to create jobs and support small and medium-sized businesses.

Global commodity market downturn deeply affected the Mongolian economy, which is heavily dependent on export of coal and copper. Endi