Gold purchase by Mongolia’s central bank up 9.5 pct in 7 months

ULAN BATOR, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) — Mongolia’s central bank purchased 9.3 tons of gold from legal entities and individuals in the first seven months of this year, marking a 9.5 percent increase over the same period last year, according to data released by the Bank of Mongolia on Monday.
As of July, the central bank’s average gold purchase price was 259,674.50 Mongolian tugriks (about 77 U.S. dollars) per gram.
The move of purchasing gold is intended to keep foreign exchange reserves at a certain level in efforts to ensure economic stability, according to the central bank.
The Asian country’s forex reserves stood at 4.7 billion U.S. dollars at the end of July, up 23.77 percent from the same period last year, according to the bank. ■