Mongolia's forex reserves drop to 2.8 bln USD

ULAN BATOR, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia's foreign-exchange reserves fell to 2.8 billion U.S. dollars, down 1.7 billion dollars from the beginning of this year, the press office of the country's parliament said Thursday.

The significant decrease in forex reserves is largely related to the surge in gasoline and fuel prices, said the Bank of Mongolia.

The average price of the gasoline brand AI-95 per liter rose to 4,210 Mongolian tugriks (1.3 dollars) from 2,770 tugriks (0.87 dollars) in February, while a liter of diesel fuel is priced at 1.28 dollars currently, up from 0.9 dollars in February, according to the country's Mineral Resources and Petroleum Authority.

Currently, the landlocked Asian country has no oil refineries and relies heavily on neighboring Russia for gasoline and diesel fuel.