From Natural Resource Boom to Sustainable Economic Growth: Lessons for Mongolia

Analyses macroeconomic impacts of public investment strategies on debt, consumption, sovereign wealth fund and exchange rates

Abstract

Some resource-rich developing countries are in the process of harnessing immense mining resources towards inclusive growth and prosperity. Nevertheless, tapping into natural resources could be challenging given the large front-loaded investment, volatile capital flows and exposure to global commodity markets. Public investment is needed to remove the often-large infrastructure gap and unlock the economic potential. However, too rapid fiscal outlays could push the economy to its limit of absorptive capacity and increase macro-financial vulnerabilities.

This paper utilizes a structural model-based approach to analyze macroeconomic impacts of different public investment strategies on key fiscal and non-fiscal variables such as debt, consumption, sovereign wealth fund, and real exchange rates. We apply the model to Mongolia and draw policy recommendations from the analysis. We find that fiscal policy adjustment, particularly moderating infrastructure investment and optimizing investment efficiency is needed to maintain macroeconomic and external stability, as well as to boost the long-term sustainable growth for Mongolia.

This work is part of the ‘Macroeconomics in Low-income countries’ programme.

Citation

  • Gupta, P.; Li, Bin Grace; Yu, Jiangyan. From Natural Resource Boom to Sustainable Economic Growth: Lessons for Mongolia. International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC, USA (2015) 30 pp. [IMF Working Paper 15/90]

  • Bin Grace Li, Pranav Gupta, Jiangyan Yu, From natural resource boom to sustainable economic growth: Lessons from Mongolia, International Economics, Volume 151, 2017, Pages 7-25, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.inteco.2017.03.001.

Updates to this page

Published 31 October 2017