North Korea's state-run media reported on Sunday that Battulga made the request in a telegram to Kim. Battulga congratulated Kim on their 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations.

The media quoted Battulga as writing that the previous leaders of the 2 countries built a solid foundation for their diplomatic ties.

The media says he also writes that he believes their relations will further develop in line with their common interests and the peace and stability of the region.

The media says referring to a visit to Mongolia by the late former North Korean leader Kim Il Sung, Battulga expressed his hope to receive the current North leader on this occasion.

Arrangements are being made for Kim Jong Un to hold a second round of bilateral summit talks with US President Donald Trump. Kim may also make his first visit to Russia later this year.

For the last few days, among the steppes of Tuv province, a few kilometres away from Mongolia’s capital Ulaanbaatar, a brand new artificial football pitch has been attracting the interest of thousands of local from the the city and surrounding areas.

With hundreds of boys and girls proudly wearing their national shirts and anxious to set foot on the inviting surface, to let off their first shots towards the untouched goalposts, the handover of another FIFA Forward project took place last week.

It was only right that, after the official opening ceremony, the first action to take place would be contested by the best country has to offer, with a range of Mongolian national teams getting the honour of playing the first games.

To fulfill its promise of bringing football to all, FIFA supported the Mongolian Football Federation (MFF), has installed the new artificial pitch in a province that, although close to the capital, is thirsty for sports infrastructure.

The EY Item Club predicted GDP growth of 1.3% this year and 1.5% in 2019, down from 1.4% and 1.6% respectively in its previous outlook three months ago.

The forecaster said these figures were based on the assumption that the UK and the EU would agree transition terms.

If this did not happen, conditions could be "significantly weaker".

If the forecaster's prediction turns out to be accurate, 2018 would be the worst year of growth for the UK economy since the financial crisis.

Howard Archer, chief economic adviser to the EY Item Club, said: "Heightened uncertainties in the run-up to and the aftermath of the UK's exit could fuel business and consumer caution.

"This is a significant factor leading us to trim our GDP forecasts for 2018 and 2019."

UK economy is 'stuck in a rut'
Brexit will be 'worse for UK than EU'
Earlier this year, the EY Item Club predicted that the UK would see two interest rate rises this year and two more in 2019.

However, following the Bank of England's decision in August to raise rates from 0.5% to 0.75%, the forecaster said it did not now expect another increase until August next year, with two more rate rises likely in 2020.

"The EY Item Club suspects that the Bank of England will want to see sustained evidence that the UK economy is holding up relatively well after Brexit occurs in late March, before hiking interest rates," it added.

EY chief economist Mark Gregory said: "The UK economy is going to experience a period of low economic growth for at least the next three years, and businesses need to recognise this and adjust accordingly.

"They should also consider a sharp downside to the economy in the event of a no-deal Brexit and make preparations for such a scenario."

Mr Gregory said a "prudent approach" would be for firms to test the robustness of their businesses, especially cash flow, against a short period of severe disruption, followed by a downturn for three or four quarters.

"Even if the Brexit process goes smoothly, the cyclical risks to the UK economy mean this would still be a worthwhile exercise. Now is the time to start to think about the future shape of any UK business after 2020," he added.

Such a growth would be the equivalent of a large export mine being added to the market every year to 2030, the report states, and it represents approximately 56% of current Australian met coal exports.

The rise would be led by China and India, particularly because of the latter's solid-to-strong economic growth, along with ongoing industrialisation and urbanisation, both of which drive demand for steel. China’s continued solid steel production will also push up the demand for coal, as well as the inability of its domestic production to keep pace with demand, something that will also happen in India.

“Even based on the conservative assumptions used in the Commodity Insights report, this demand growth represents a major opportunity for our world-class coal producers and the Australian economy,” Minerals Council of Australia CEO, Tania Constable, said in a media statement.

The Oceanian country is the world’s fifth largest producer of black coal, sitting behind China, India, the USA and Indonesia. Most of the production from Down Under is exported on the seaborne market, with 147Mt of metallurgical coal sold abroad in 2017. Despite being producers themselves, China and India are Australia’s largest markets for metallurgical coal, accounting for over 50% of volumes and followed by Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

According to Commodity Insights, the reasons why the Australian black mineral is sought after are its quality, particularly when extracted from the Queensland’s Bowen Basin; the end-user mine equity; proximity to key Asian markets; and the key off-take market stability.

“The underlying demand stability from the key importers of Australian metallurgical coals (Japan, Korea and Taiwan), driven largely by significant steel production in these regions, provides substantial underlying support for production security. The significance of their dependency on Australian coals is further evidenced by their mine equity participation and/or ownership,” the research document reads.

For Tania Constable, this information should be seen as good news for all Australians who benefit from the royalties and company taxes paid by the country’s met coal producers.

But to be able to really reap the benefits of future developments in the global coal market, Australia has some homework to do. According to the report, the country needs to address issues such as the lengthy and costly approval processes of coal projects and the sheer volume of red and green tape that miners have to deal with. It also needs to add or expand mines and infrastructure – particularly rail – in a timely fashion.

At the meeting, both sides have expressed opinions on the current state of trade and economic cooperation and exchanged their ideas on how to further improve bilateral relations of Mongolia-UK on future actions in both international and regional affairs.

Minister D.Tsogtbaatar underlined that Mongolia has intentions to expand and develop friendly ties with the UK in all sectors including trade, economy and investment and he has expressed an interest to retain the current European Union’s Generalised System of Preferences Plus (GSP+) trade arrangement and facilitations for Mongolian exporting products to the UK market after Brexit.

Source: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia

The figure is an increase of 1.5 million tons from the same period last year, the Mongolian Customs General Administration (MCGA) said.

Coal is Mongolia's main export. The landlocked Asian country exported 33.3 million tons of coal in 2017, official data from the Mongolian Ministry of Mining and Heavy Industry showed.

The country aims to increase coal exports to 40 million tons in the coming years.

Mongolia's exports increased 15.3 percent to reach over 5.2 billion U.S. dollars while imports surged 39 percent to more than 4.3 billion U.S. dollars in the January-September period, resulting in a trade surplus of 931.7 million U.S. dollars, the Mongolian Customs General Administration (MCGA) said.

The mining industry accounted for 85.9 percent of total exports, according to the MCGA.

The MCGA said that Mongolia has traded with a total of 151 countries in the first three quarters and exported its goods and services to 71 countries among them.

Mr. B.Lkhagvasuren said “BoM, in accordance with its legal obligation to coordinate payment system in Mongolia has been providing card settlement so far. Technological development in the banking sector allows to fulfill the objective of delivering simpler, faster and more secure financial services to the customers. Thus, in order to promote this type of fintech service, we are launching this campaign. Now, Mongolia’s banking system is being digitized through the introduction of digital currency and smart payment card even though we started using payment cards just recently.”

Financial sector’s quick adaptation to the technological revolution is creating an opportunity to make banking service simpler, faster and more accessible to the citizens, added the Deputy Governor.

E.Anar, Director General, Payment Systems Department at BoM emphasized that introduction of the digital signature system enables fast and secure information exchange between BoM and the commercial banks and he showed the system’s way of working with his own signature as an example.

When the Democratic Party was in power, over 90,000 people received mortgage loans in 2013-2014 under the Price Stabilising Programme implemented by the Bank of Mongolia.

Currently, a total of 270 thousand households live in Ulaanbaatar’s ger districts; 60 percent of them can afford participate in the mortgage programme: at the same time there are 34 thousand apartments which are standing empty and cannot be sold.

According to a police source, they are being investigated for money laundering and fraud.

Their arrest came after fuel prices increased by MNT 50-250 in Mongolia; ‘Magnai Trade’ is one of the country’s biggest fuel importers.