ULAN BATOR, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia's industrial output in 2018 increased by 21 percent from the previous year, amounting to 15.7 trillion Mongolian Tugriks (about 5.9 billion U.S. dollars), official data showed Tuesday.

Output of the main products of mining and extractive industries was up by 19.6 percent, making it a key driver of the overall growth, according to the data released by the National Statistical Office.

Particularly, the volume of raw coal production rose by 63.1 percent, and the volume of iron ore production increased by 3.4 percent, year on year.

Mining industry products last year accounted for about 85 percent of the total industrial production in the landlocked country, which is rich in natural resources such as gold, silver, iron, coal and copper.