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MongoliaRetail Trade and Consumption
In 1985 retail trade turnover was 4,138.4 million tugriks, of
which 3,948.4 million tugriks occurred in state outlets. Retail
trade in Mongolia rose slowly from negligible levels--the
equivalents of 60,000 tugriks in 1921 and 8.7 million tugriks in
1924--to 184.8 million tugriks in 1940. Beginning in the 1950s,
retail trade grew dramatically as large-scale Chinese and Soviet
assistance permitted Mongolia to purchase imported consumer goods
not produced domestically. By 1960 the total reached 975.8
million tugriks, and after Mongolia's 1962 entry into Comecon,
retail trade increased to 1,914.6 million tugriks in 1970. Total
retail trade in 1980 and 1985 was, respectively, 3,348.3 million
and 4,138.4 million tugriks. In 1985 foodstuffs accounted for
49.9 percent and non-food commodities, for 50.1 percent of retail
trade in state trading organizations. Ulaanbaatar accounted for
41.6 percent of retail trade in state trade organizations.
In 1984 Mongolia's state retail trade and public catering
enterprises included 1,382 shops, 2,498 stalls and agents, and
543 restaurants and canteens. In the 1980s, the government began
introducing self-service stores, with a limited variety of
products, into the state retail network. The self-service stores
eliminated the practice of triple queuing--lining up to select,
then to pay for, and finally to receive products purchased. State
retail outlets, including mobile shops in rural areas, offered
equipment for arad households, such as batteries, cooking
pots, and paraffin lamps, as well as special-order departments
for goods not stocked. A wider range of goods was available in
urban areas, particularly in Ulaanbaatar.
The capital's main department store in the late 1980s was
Ulsyn Ih Delguur. In addition, there was a specialty shop
restricted to members of the Mongolian
nomenklatura (see Glossary).
Two duty-free shops (in Ulaanbaatar's main hotels)
sold foreign luxury goods and high-quality domestic products to
foreigners exchanging hard currencies and to Mongolians
possessing hard-currency vouchers. A Sunday market for spare
parts and odds and ends was located in the northern suburbs of
Ulaanbaatar. Prices in this market, unlike those in the state
retail system, were negotiated freely.
All other prices were controlled strictly by the government,
and great efforts were made to ensure stable prices for consumer
goods. Before January 1988, prices were determined by the State
Committee for Prices and Standards, the functions of which were
absorbed by the new State Planning and Economic Committee. Retail
prices were said to have declined by 0.5 percent from 1970 to
1980. In the late 1980s, however, it was unclear how economic
reforms would affect retail price levels. Although the draft
state enterprise law stipulated that enterprises would set their
own prices for products, the role of the State Planning and
Economic Committee in setting price guidelines was uncertain.
There were indications that the government thought that some
inflation would be unavoidable.
In the late 1980s, the Mongolian government was working to
raise the standard of living by increasing per capita food
consumption and by offering a greater number and variety of
consumer goods for purchase. In the Eighth Plan, the supply of
foodstuffs was to rise by 23 percent. Efforts were to be made to
increase agricultural production; to raise the efficiency of
foodstuff procurement, shipment, storage, and sale; and to
eliminate spoilage and losses. Changes in the average annual per
capita consumption of foodstuffs revealed a changing diet.
Consumption of such traditional foods as meat and dairy products
declined, while consumption of such foods as vegetables, bread,
and sugar increased. In 1985 the government launched a fifteenyear Target Program for the Development of Agriculture and the
Improvement of Food Supplies. Per capita meat consumption was to
drop to 88 kilograms. Other per capita consumption targets were
cereals, 13 to 15 kilograms; dairy products, 120 to 130
kilograms; eggs, 35 to 50 kilograms; flour and flour products,
110 to 115 kilograms; fruits and berries, 11 to 13 kilograms;
potatoes, 47 to 53 kilograms; sugar and sugar products, 24 to 26
kilograms; and vegetables 29 to 31 kilograms. The Eighth Plan
also aimed to increase the commodity turnover of public catering
establishments by 19 to 21 percent. More restaurants and
cafeterias were to open, and tastier meals in greater variety
were to be offered.
Statistics on retail sales of consumer goods were sketchy,
but they revealed increasing availability of goods since the
1970s. In 1984 the minister of trade and procurement stated that,
between 1970 and 1983, the sale of motorcycles per 1,000 people
increased 140 percent; of refrigerators, 900 percent; of
television sets, 140 percent; of vacuum cleaners, 280 percent;
and of washing machines, 310 percent. A British journalist, Alan
J.K. Sanders, calculated that between 1975 and 1982, 1 family in
345 purchased a car, 2 families in 3 acquired radios, and each
family bought 2 watches or clocks. From 1975 to 1983, roughly one
family in seven bought a motorcycle; one in nine, a bicycle, and
one in twenty-eight, a camera. During the 1975-83 period, one
urban family in three acquired a refrigerator or washing machine;
one in three, a television set; and one in seven, a vacuum
cleaner. The Eighth Plan targeted the sale of consumer goods to
rise by 21 to 24 percent. The plan stipulated an increase in
sales of "cultural-everyday durables and also garments and
knitwear, carpets, and other types of industrial commodities."
The plan's goals for increased retail sales were part of the
government's efforts to increase the quantity and the quality of
consumer goods.
Mongolian sources revealed little about other services. In
1985 Mongolia had 465 hotels, 760 public baths, 295 beauty and
barber shops, 125 photography shops, 130 dry cleaners, and 392
shoe-repair shops. The Eighth Plan called for increasing consumer
services by 27 to 29 percent, including an expansion of 55 to 57
percent in rural areas.
Data as of June 1989
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