ULAANBAATAR, March 14 (Reuters) - Mongolia can likely look forward to 7-8 percent economic growth once it rebounds from its economic troubles, the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) country head to Mongolia said.

"I see 7-8 percent (economic growth), which I think is achievable and sustainable," IMF Resident Representative for Mongolia Neil Saker said at a panel discussion on Monday.

That would still be far slower than the boom days when the resource-rich country grew 17.3 percent in 2011.

The IMF and other partners bailed Mongolia out with a $5.5 billion economic stabilisation package in February, after the landlocked nation was hit hard by an economic crisis in 2016 due to government overspending and declining revenues from commodity exports.

This rescue package boosted investor confidence and helped in a successful debt swap of the $580 million bond due 2017 issued by the state-owned Development Bank of Mongolia (DBM).

Holders of $476 million DBM bonds received new sovereign bonds in exchange and new investors bought $124 million bonds, taking the aggregate of the new sovereign bonds due in 2024 , to $600 million. The remaining $104 million bonds issued by DBM will be redeemed on March 21.

"The Development Bank bond is now being settled," Saker said, referring to the bond due on March 21.

"Mongolia did a good job talking to investors and the bond was five times oversubscribed."

(Reporting by Terrence Edwards; Additional reporting by Umesh Desai; Editing by Sue-Lin Wong and Jacqueline Wong)

Published Date:2017-03-15