Vehicles and traditional gers are seen at Tsagaan Khad in Khanbogd Soum, near the border with China in the Gobi desert, Mongolia, October 30, 2017. (REUTERS PHOTO)

ULAN BATOR, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- The Monetary Policy Council of the Bank of Mongolia announced on Friday to cut its benchmark interest rate from 12 percent to 11 percent due to positive changes in the Mongolian economy.

Bayardavaa Bayarsaikhan, a director of Monetary Policy Department, said annual inflation in Mongolia for 2018-2020 will be about eight percent. In view of this, Bank of Mongolia is working to ensure that inflation in Mongolia in 2018 does not exceed eight percent.

Meanwhile, experts of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) projected that Mongolia's economy will grow by three percent in 2018. This shows that there are more positive forecasts in the Mongolian economy compared with the April forecast of the World Bank (WB).

The World Bank experts in April concluded that Mongolia's GDP will increase by 2.8 percent in 2017, and by 3.1 percent in 2018.