Economy

Economy—overview: Moldova enjoys a favorable climate and good farmland but has no major mineral deposits. As a result the economy depends heavily on agriculture featuring fruits vegetables wine and tobacco. Moldova must import all of its supplies of oil coal and natural gas largely from Russia. Energy shortages contributed to sharp production declines after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. The Moldovan Government has recently been making progress on an ambitious economic reform agenda. As part of its reform efforts Moldova introduced a stable convertible currency freed all prices stopped issuing preferential credits to state enterprises and backed steady land privatization removed export controls and freed interest rates. The IMF has suspended payment on Moldova's Extended Fund Facility since November 1997 due to concerns about the budget deficit and money supply growth. In late December Parliament agreed to a lower 1998 budget deficit to address IMF and World Bank concerns.

GDP: purchasing power parity—$10.8 billion (1997 est.)

GDP—real growth rate: -2% (1997 est.)

GDP—per capita: purchasing power parity—$2 400 (1997 est.)

GDP—composition by sector:

agriculture: 42%

industry: 36%

services: 22% (1995)

Inflation rate—consumer price index: 11.2% (1997 est.)

Labor force:

total: 2.42 million (1995)

by occupation: agriculture 46.1% industry 13.9% other 40.0% (1996)

Unemployment rate: 1.4% (includes only officially registered unemployed; large numbers of underemployed workers) (March 1997)

Budget:

revenues: $570 million

expenditures: $641 million including capital expenditures of $28 million (1997 est.)

Industries: food processing agricultural machinery foundry equipment refrigerators and freezers washing machines hosiery sugar vegetable oil shoes textiles

Industrial production growth rate: -2% (1997 est.)

Electricity—capacity: 2.906 million kW (1997)

Electricity—production: 1.5 billion kWh (1997)

Electricity—consumption per capita: 324 kWh (1996 est.)

Agriculture—products: vegetables fruits wine grain sugar beets sunflower seed tobacco; meat milk

Exports:

total value: $816 million (1997)

commodities: foodstuffs wine tobacco textiles and footwear machinery

partners: Russia Kazakhstan Ukraine Romania Germany

Imports:

total value: $1.16 billion (1997)

commodities: oil gas coal steel machinery foodstuffs automobiles and other consumer durables

partners: Russia Ukraine Uzbekistan Romania Germany

Debt—external: more than $1 billion (1997)

Economic aid:

recipient: IMF and World Bank $512 million (1992-97)

Currency: the Moldovan leu (MLD) (plural lei) was introduced in late 1993

Exchange rates: lei (MLD) per US$1 (end of period)—4.6870 (January 1997) 4.6628 (1997) 4.6743 (1996) 4.4990 (1995) 4.2700 (1994) 3.6400 (1993) 0.4145 (1992); period average—4.6758 (January 1998) 81.6637 (1997) 4.6045 (1996) 4.4958 (1995)

Fiscal year: calendar year