.Mongolia's foreign debt reaches about 3 billion US dollars.

5/3 Tass 103

BEIJING, March 5 (Itar-Tass) -- Mongolia's foreign debt has amounted
to 2.8 billion U.S. dollars, i.e. 1,000 U.S. dollars per capita, Mongolian
media reported on Friday.

According to the Mongolian ministry of finance, the debt has formed
from foreign borrowings since 1991. The country's budget annually
allocates from 100 to 120 billion tugrics (1,400 tugrics per one U.S.
dollar) for debt repayment. Experts say the peak of payments will be in
the 2020s, when the funds for foreign debt repayment are increased twofold.
Nonetheless, Mongolian economists maintain that the outstanding
foreign debts "are at an acceptable level." Donor countries provided
Mongolia with 1.8 billion U.S. dollars of free aid. Mongolia's population
exceeds 2.7 million.
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