Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/. In the first quarter of 2022, Mongolia traded with 126 countries from all over the world, and the total trade turnover reached USD 3.6 billion, of which USD 1.9 billion were exports and USD 1.7 billion were imports. The total foreign trade turnover increased by USD 108.7 million (3.1 percent), where imports increased by USD 167.0 million (11.0 percent) and exports decreased by USD 58.3 million (2.9 percent) compared to the same period of the previous year. In March 2021, exports increased by USD 121.3 million (18.9 percent) and imports increased by USD 171.8 million (35.7 percent) compared to the previous month.

The foreign trade balance was in surplus of USD 476.6 million in the first quarter of 2021 and while it was in surplus of USD 251.4 million in the first quarter of 2022, decreased by USD 225.3 million compared to the same period of the previous year. In March 2022, Trade balance surplus decreased by USD 50.5 million from previous month. Trade with China reached USD 2.1 billion in the first 3 months of 2022, which is accounting 56.6 percent of the total trade turnover

Copper concentrates and bituminous coal accounted for 46.5 percent and 41.0 percent of total exports to China, respectively, gold accounted for 99.8 percent of total export to Switzerland.

In the first quarter of 2022, USD 58.3 million decrease in exports from the same period of the previous year was resulted from USD 16.7 million decrease in coal exports

In the first quarter of 2022, USD 121.3 million increase in exports from the previous month was mainly due to USD 166.4 million increase in bituminous coal exports

In the first quarter of 2022, 32.0 percent of the total imports were from Russia, 31.2 percent -- from China, 8.2 percent-- from Japan, 4.8 percent-- from the Republic of Korea, 3.5 percent-- was from USA and 2.5 percent -- from Germany, which are accounting for 82.1 percent of the total imports.

In the first quarter of 2022, 57.1 percent of the total imports from Russia were petroleum products, 71.2 percent of the total imports from Japan were cars, and 6.6 percent of the total imports from China was electricity, 5.8 percent was trucks and 87.6 percent was imports of other products. The USD 167.0 million increase in imports from the same period of the previous year was mainly due to USD 90.4 million increase in petrol, USD 28.0 million increase in cars, USD 15.3 million increase in diesel.

Exports of mineral products, natural or cultured stones, precious metal, jewelry and textile articles products made up 97.3 percent of the total export. On the other hand, 61.8 percent of the total imports was mineral products, machinery, equipment and electric appliances, transport vehicle and its spare parts and food products.

Source: National Statistics Office