Mongolia’s VAT refund plan doubles payouts, easing households but risking fiscal strain and testing the shadow economy.

Mongolia’s delicate diplomacy faces new risks and openings after the Alaska summit, balancing Moscow, Beijing, and the U.S. with careful pragmatism.

Half of Mongolia lives in Ulaanbaatar, a city that shivers through winters of minus 30. Heat and light come from Soviet plants built in the 1980s, now prone to breakdowns and even fires. Another winter is coming, and the capital’s energy security again rests on a project that has existed more on paper than in concrete: Power Plant-5. For 14 years the plant has been promised, delayed, revived and shelved. Each failed deal has left Mongolia more dependent on imported electrici