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. As part of an ambitious reform effort, Moldova introduced a convertible currency, freed all prices, stopped issuing preferential credits to state enterprises, backed steady land privatization, removed export controls, and freed interest rates. Yet these efforts could not offset the impact of political and economic difficulties, both internal and regional. In 1998, the economic troubles of Russia, by far Moldova's leading trade partner, were a major cause of the 8.6% drop in GDP. In 1999, GDP fell again, by 4.4%, the fifth drop in the past seven years; exports were down, and energy supplies continued to be erratic. Following the return to positive GDP growth in 2000 (1.9%), Moldova experienced strong 6.1% rise in GDP in 2001, driven by a marked improvement in industry and a 20% improvement in agriculture.

GDP purchasing power parity - $11.3 billion (2001 est.)

GDP - real growth rate 6.1% (2001 est.)

GDP - per capita purchasing power parity - $2,550 (2001 est.)

GDP - composition by sector
agriculture: 28%
industry: 21%
services: 51% (2000)

Population below poverty line 80% (2001 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share
lowest 10%: 2.2%
highest 10%: 30.7% (1997)

Distribution of family income - Gini index 40.6 (1997)

Inflation rate (consumer prices) 9.6% (2001 est.)

Labor force 1.7 million (1998)

Labor force - by occupation agriculture 40%, industry 14%, services 46% (1998)

Unemployment rate 1.9% (includes only officially registered unemployed; large numbers of underemployed workers; 25% of working age Moldovans are employed abroad) (November 2000)

Budget
revenues: $536 million
expenditures: $594 million, including capital expenditures of $NA (1998 est.)

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

Industrial production growth rate 14.2% (2001 est.)

Electricity - production 3.317 billion kWh (2000)

Electricity - production by source
fossil fuel: 90.44%
hydro: 9.56%
other: 0% (2000)
nuclear: 0%

Electricity - consumption 3.655 billion kWh (2000)

Electricity - exports 630 million kWh (2000)

Electricity - imports 1.2 billion kWh (2000)

Agriculture - products vegetables, fruits, wine, grain, sugar beets, sunflower seed, tobacco; beef, milk

Exports $580 million (f.o.b., 2001)

Exports - commodities foodstuffs 42%, textiles and footwear, machinery (2000)

Exports - partners Russia 45%, Romania 8%, Germany 8%, Ukraine 8%, Italy 8% (2000)

Imports $865 million (f.o.b., 2001)

Imports - commodities mineral products and fuel 32%, machinery and equipment, chemicals, textiles (2000)

Imports - partners Romania 16%, Ukraine 14%, Russia 13%, Germany 11%, Italy 6% (2000)

Debt - external $700 million (2001)

Economic aid - recipient $100.8 million (1995); note - $547 million from the IMF and World Bank (1992-99)

Currency Moldovan leu (MDL)

Currency code MDL

Exchange rates lei per US dollar - 12.8579 (October 2001), 12.4342 (2000), 10.5158 (1999), 5.3707 (1998), 4.6236 (1997); note - lei is the plural form of leu

Fiscal year calendar year

NOTE: The information regarding Moldova on this page is re-published from the 2002 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Moldova Economy 2002 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Moldova Economy 2002 should be addressed to the CIA.