The main event for Mongolia’s economy in 2013 will be the opening of the Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold mine, which many see as a make-or-break moment. Coal, presently the country’s most important commodity, declined in price by some 15% in 2012, with volumes slipping by around 22%. In 2012 the current account deficit reached 16.7%, excluding mining-related imports, according to the IMF, compared...
Economy
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Chapter | Country Profile from The Report: Mongolia 2013
With a population of 2.8m inhabiting its wind-swept, grassy steppes and vast expanses of desert, Mongolia is the world’s most sparsely populated country. Its primary religion is Buddhism, though it is estimated that 40% of the population does not practise religion. Ninety per cent of the population speaks Mongolian, most using the Khalkha Mongol dialect, which shares lineage with Turkic,...
At the base of the Arabian Peninsula, occupying a landmass slightly larger than Italy, Oman is the largest country in the GCC after Saudi Arabia. In recent years, the non-OPEC oil exporter’s economy has been undergoing a steady transformation, reorienting from oil toward a more diverse set of service and industry-based economic activities. So far, progress has been promising. In 2011 oil and gas accounted for 38.8% GDP.
While a significant portion of economic activity in Oman is concentrated in the capital and nearby surrounding areas, a number of other regions remain key drivers of economic growth. Moreover, these regions are playing an increasingly important role as the national economy matures and diversifies. For example, Sohar offers shipping firms a seaport south of the Strait of Hormuz, which reduces...
While hydrocarbons accounted for 38.8% of the sultanate’s GDP in 2011, non-oil activities have grown by 55% from 2007 to 2011, from OR9.2bn ($24bn) to OR14.3bn ($37.7bn). Of these, the services sector has consistently been the largest category recently, hovering between a 30% and 40% share of overall GDP, with industry making up some 15-20%. However, despite the growth of non-oil activity, 2012...
Malaysia is a multi-ethnic society of 29m split between the Malay Peninsula and the island of Borneo. With a per-capita GDP that has hovered around $10,000 for the past decade, the country is struggling to escape a “middle-income trap”