Page 40 - bne Magazine Apri20

40 I Cover story bne April 2020
Kyrgyzstan VIRUS UPDATE
• Number of cases as of March 29: 84
• Number of deaths as of March 29: 0
• Comment: The pandemic is set to harm remittances
by Kyrgyz migrant workers in Russia, which will, in turn, harm Kyrgyzstan’s economy. Much of Kyrgyzstan’s exports are agricultural – the potential hoarding of food in order to keep food supplies into Kyrgyz cities uninterrupted could harm these exports.
PUBLIC HEALTH MEASURES
• All borders closed to foreigners as of March 17. State of emergency declared on March 21. The state of emergency will last indefinitely until the government decides to end it.
• State of emergency enforced in the cities of Bishkek, Osh, and Jalal-Abad along with the Suzak district
of Jalal-Abad Region and the Nookat and Kara-Suu
districts of Osh Region. Measures include a daily curfew
from 20:00 until 07:00.
• Bans or limits on public gatherings and events, including
suspensions of prayers at mosques.
ECONOMIC MEASURES
• Talks ongoing with creditors to restructure Kyrgyzstan’s sovereign foreign debt.
• $120.9mn IMF disbursement to be received by Kyrgyzstan to help meet urgent balance of payment needs resulting from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
ECONOMIC FORECASTS (where available)
• IMF says the outbreak of the pandemic weakened the macroeconomic outlook for Kyrgyzstan and opened up a $400mn balance of payments gap.
Mongolia
VIRUS UPDATE
• Number of cases as of March 29: 14
• Number of deaths as of March 29: 0
PUBLIC HEALTH MEASURES
• Border with China closed to halt virus spread.
• Public events cancelled.
• Schools temporarily shut down.
ECONOMIC MEASURES
• Central bank’s policy rate reduced to 10%, down from 11%; interest rate corridor set at ‘+1/-1’; reserve requirement ratio of national currency lowered by 2pp to 8.5%
• $1.6bn stimulus package announced.
• Exemptions on paying social insurance contributions for
all entities for six months between April 1 and October 1 announced. Personal income tax also waived for the same time period.
• Entities with revenues of less than MNT1.5bn are entitled to exemption from corporate tax between April 1 and October 1.
• For three months, the government will pay private companies a monthly MNT200,000 for every private company employee in order to keep the employees employed in their current jobs despite the difficulties in business and declining revenues at their companies.
• Loans with a 3% interest rate worth a total of MNT300bn to be granted to national cashmere companies to finance purchasing of cashmere from herders.
• Government allowances for children temporarily increased. • Retail price of fuel per litre to be cut by MNT 300-400
starting from April 15.
• Suspension of parliamentary elections proposed to cut
expenses.
ECONOMIC FORECASTS (where available)
• The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) said Mongolia stands among the nations set to be most affected by the economic impact of the outbreak in China alongside Australia, South Korea, Vietnam and Taiwan.
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