Share of Moldovan exports to EU gets close to 70 per cent after first eight months of 2018

Chisinau, 9 October /MOLDPRES/ - Moldova’s exports have reached a historical maximum. As much as 69.3 per cent of the native goods were exported to the EU market in the first eight months of this year. Statistics data on Moldova’s foreign trade in January-August 2018, made public by the National Statistics Bureau (BNS) today, confirms experts’ forecasts, who anticipate an increase in the share of the European Union in overall Moldova’s exports to 70 per cent by late 2018.    

Official statistics shows that, on the same period of the last year, the quota of exports to EU of all the Moldovan exports stood at 64.1 per cent. The supplies of goods from Moldova to EU’s market increased by 32.6 per cent in the first eight months of 2018 and amounted to 1.2 million dollars.   

Three European Union member states, respectively Romania, Italy and Germany, have a share of 69.3 per cent of Moldova’s exports on the European market. The deliveries to Italy recorded an impressive 1.6-fold growth, the supplies to Germany increased by 54.1 per cent and the ones to Romania grew by 39.9 per cent.   

The increase in deliveries to the foreign market “at a level of 90 per cent is prompted by the growth of exports to the European Union – an unprecedented contribution in the history of our foreign trade. We remind that, in 2017, EU’s contribution to the increase in our exports was also extremely big – 75 per cent,” economist Veaceslav Ionita said. He noted that, if the tendency maintains, then in 2018, “the exports to EU might account for 70 per cent of all exports, which is equivalent to the exports to the Commonwealth of Independent States 20 years ago.”   

On the other hand, the exports of goods to CIS decreased by 6.7 per cent and their share in Moldova’s overall exports diminished to 15.8 per cent in the first eight months of this year against 20.9 per cent in January-August 2017.  

According to BNS, in the first eight months of this year, Moldova exported goods worth 1.752 billion dollars, of which 70 per cent represent native goods. 

Road transport means are most often used for exporting goods (87.2 per cent of overall exports), followed by the sea transport (seven per cent), railway transport (3.7 per cent) and air transport (2.1 per cent).

Data by the National Statistics Bureau also shows that, in January-August 2018, the imports of goods amounted to 3.707 billion dollars, - up by 23.3 per cent against the same period of 2017.

(Reporter V. Bercu, editor A. Raileanu)