Mongolia’s central bank lowers benchmark interest rate to 10 pct

Mongolia's central bank has decided to reduce its benchmark interest rate to 10 percent, according to a statement by the bank on Saturday. Byadran Lkhagvasuren, governor of the Bank of Mongolia, explained that the decision was made after evaluating the current and projected state of the economy, financial markets, and external economic risks. The rate was lowered by 1 percentage point to 10 percent in an effort to stabilize inflation at the target level. The central bank previously reduced the benchmark interest rate by 1 percent to 11 percent in May. According to the central bank, Mongolia's inflation rate was 6.5 percent in August, down 3.5 percentage points from the same period last year but up 1 percentage point from the previous month. The Asian country has set a goal to stabilize inflation around the target rate of 6 percent in the medium term. Source: The Namibia Press Agency