Moldova's tendency of higher growth of exports against imports maintains in recent March

15:15 | 15.05.2019 Category: Economic

Chisinau, 15 May /MOLDPRES/ – The level of exports outpaced import growth by about 3.5 times in March, and maintained the tendency in the first two months of 2019. The National Bureau of Statistics (BNS) has announced today that imports of goods in Moldova increased by 2.9 per cent in the first quarter compared to similar period of 2018, but exports accelerated strongly, advancing by 8.1 per cent.

It is a reverse trend to the one recorded in 2018, when exports grew by 11.6 per cent during the year and imports increased by 19.3 per cent.

As a result of foreign trade evolution, in the first three months of 2019, the balance of payments deficit, although, according to the statisticians, remained "considerably" decreased by 2.4 per cent compared to the same period of 2018. The deficit trade in January – March was $632.2 million.

The statistics also indicate an increase in exports on the EU market, with 3.5 per cent in the first three months of 2019, and a decrease in the supply of Moldovan goods to the CIS countries by over 10 per cent. The CIS share in total exports from Moldova dropped to 13.94 per cent and to Russia up to 7.93 per cent. It is a trend that has been going on for a few years. On the other hand, the share of other countries than the EU and CIS countries came close to 22 per cent in the first quarter of 2019, after a 2.3 – times increase in freight deliveries to Turkey and an increase in 8.2 per cent of exports to Switzerland.

Moldova exported goods worth $733 million and imported $1,365.2 million in the first three months of 2019.

The machinery and equipment for transport had the largest share in foreign trade in the first three months of 2019, i.e. 24.7 per cent of export, followed by food and live animals (23.8 per cent), manufactured articles, with 18.7 per cent.

The Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure (MEI) anticipates an increase in exports in 2019 by 13.1 per cent over 2018, up to $3.45 billion and an increase in imports by 9.4 per cent up to MDL 6.5 billion.

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