Moldovan president warns about impact of rising prices for energy resource

The authorities are closely monitoring the situation on the oil products market and will come up with solutions, if the current situation, marked by rising prices, persists for a longer period of time. President Maia Sandu today made statements to this effect, after a meeting of the National Security Council (CNS).

“We are monitoring it and it is a worrying situation. I will tell you without any reservations: it is a quite worrying situation. If the situation does not stabilize, if prices do not stabilize in the next few weeks, then we will face major effects on our economy and, accordingly, the government will come up with solutions to the extent that we can afford these solutions, because obviously no one can ever compensate 100 percent of the losses caused by such crises, but there are certain solutions and they will be implemented,” Maia Sandu said.

The Moldovan president stressed that the situation had been examined at a meeting attended by representatives of the government and parliament, where potential scenarios were analyzed, depending on forecasts regarding the developments in the Middle East.

“Obviously, the price increase affects us both at household level and at the level of the economy. We will continue to monitor the situation and our hope is that this crisis will end sooner rather than later, but we must also prepare for the worst-case scenarios,” Maia Sandu noted.

At the same time, the president pointed out that, due to its dependence on imports of oil products, Moldova stayed vulnerable to energy shocks, even though in recent years concrete steps had been taken to strengthen energy security.

In the emerged situation, in order to support farmers, the authorities have approved an excise tax reimbursement programme for agriculture, worth over 100 million lei. In addition, the government has the task, in the coming days, to analyze and identify what other measures could be taken to support the economy, Maia Sandu said.

At the same time, according to the head of state, in the medium and long term, the solution remains to increase energy independence by expanding renewable energy production capacities, reducing consumption through energy efficiency projects, and electrification.

At the beginning of March, the government introduced a state of alert in the energy sector for a period of 60 days, in connection with the external situation. According to the authorities, the measure is preventive in nature and aims to protect domestic consumption and maintain the stability of the energy system.

The Energy Ministry today said that, in recent days, about 2,765 tons of diesel and nearly 1,300 tons of gasoline had been imported into Moldova. Under these conditions, oil products stocks amounted to 15.4 days of gasoline consumption, 14 days of LPG consumption and 8 days of diesel consumption, the source said.