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

NOTE: The information regarding Moldova on this page is re-published from the 1998 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Moldova Economy 1998 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Moldova Economy 1998 should be addressed to the CIA.