By U.BATCHIMEG

A protest against recent price inflation was led by the Confederation of Mongolian Trade Unions on January 20 at Sukhbaatar Square. More than 1000 people gathered despite freezing cold weather. Over 50 institutions and organizations along with representatives from rural areas joined the protest including the National Association of Mongolian Consumer Rights Protection Societies.

They protested against price inflation and their signs read, “Reduce price inflation,” and “Poverty with salary.”During the protest, the President of the Confederation of Mongolian Trade Unions S.Ganbaatar said, “We thank the people who gathered here in this freezing weather for standing up for your children’s future. Mongolian people are living a hard life today. We are not here to make things political, we are just trying to afford a loaf of bread. We are protesting today for fair allocations. Today we are the toys that political parties play with. We have tried to solve things without protests. We asked political parties to meet with us two weeks ago. Sadly, they completely ignored us. Together we are telling them that we will not stop until they solve the issue in a way that it is beneficial for the people of Mongolia. Victory will be on our side.” One of the protesters L.Dondov from Chingeltei District said, “The price of all goods have increased dramatically. Beef per kilogram was 5000 MNT last year and now it is 7000 MNT. Milk per liter was 700 MNT, now it is 850 MNT. The chocolate “Alpen Gold” was 1300 MNT, but now it is1500 MNT. It is time for us to protest against this. If we cannot solve this in a peaceful way, we will try other ways.” There were protesters who came as far away as Darkhan-Uul province. At 16.00, a delegation from the Government made a pledge that it will consider the issue within the day and the protest disbanded.