Moldova's exports to EU market record highest growth of last seven years

Chisinau, 7 April /MOLDPRES/ - Moldova’s exports to the European Union countries increased by 40.2 per cent in the first two months of 2018 against the same period of the year before; this is a value above expectations and the highest level in the last seven years, according to data by the National Statistics Bureau (BNS).    

This is the second year in a row that the supplies of Moldovan goods to the EU market are on a high rise after the 2016 crisis, when amid a cut in the demand, the exports dropped by 20 per cent. The increase registered in the beginning of this year is the second one in terms of size in the history of the relations with the European Union, following 2011, when the growth stood at 54.1 per cent.   

In January-February 2018, Moldova exported goods to EU worth 293.3 million lei, and their weight in all the exports reached the maximum of 67.2 per cent.

Contacted by MOLDFPRES, an export of the IDIS Viitorul Institute, Viorel Chivriga, explained the increase in exports by the re-launch of the industry and agriculture, an increasingly higher role played by multinational companies, especially the ones working in free economic zones. “This is also a result of the reorientation of more companies to markets of EU and other countries, after the introduction of embargos by Russia,” the expert noted. According to Chivriga, the effects of the implementation of the Free Trade Agreement with the European Union, the changes taking place in this context start being felt.     

Statistics data also shows that, in January-February 2018, the exports to Romania grew by 38.2 per cent, the ones to Germany increased 1.7-fold, the exports to Italy went up by 48.1 per cent against the same period of 2017. These three countries are on the first three positions in terms of destination of Moldovan goods among the EU member states. In the first two months of this year, Moldova’s exports  increased considerably to Spain (1.8-fold), Poland (46.1 per cent), Greece (2.2-fold) and the Netherlands (1.7-fold).

The re-exports of goods after processing, meant mainly to EU (clothes, threads, cables and electric transformers, footwear and parts of footwear, peeled nuts, chairs and other furniture, valises, suitcases) accounted for 22.4 per cent of all exports.  

The countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) had a weight of 16.3 per cent in Moldova’s exports, down by three percentage points against the same period of the year before. The exports of goods to these countries grew by 15.9 per cent against January-February 2017.

BNS informed that, in all, in January-February 2018, the exports of goods increased by 38 per cent against the same period of 2017, up to 436.3 million dollars, while the imports grew by 33.8 per cent, reaching 801.9 million dollars.    

(Reporter V. Bercu, editor A. Raileanu)