PRESIDENT DODON STATES THAT MOLDOVA’S GDP WILL FALL 3% IN 2020 IN MOST OPTIMISTIC CASE

President Igor Dodon stated that due to the coronavirus pandemic, the most optimistic scenario of republic economy development implies 3% GDP falling against 2019, which is 7.3 billion lei (US$410 million).

At the briefing after the Tuesday’s Supreme Security Council sitting, he said that the decline in the Moldovan economy is due to the recession in economies of all countries of the region, which negatively affects the economy of Moldova, whose exports, imports, internal consumption are falling.

Dodon enumerated the authorities’ main priorities for the period of crisis, connected with the Covid-19 pandemic: guaranteed payment of salaries, pensions and allowances, support to economic agents and the population, given the technical unemployment and state’s readiness to pay minimal salary worth 2750 lei (around 140 euros) for the period of the state of emergency, as well as returning to enterprises of around 44% taxes from the salary fund for the period of the state of emergency – March 17-May 15.

“Some politicians propose to completely renounce any type of investments. We will be economizing, but we do not plan to cancel all investments into economy, especially in infrastructural projects. We need that the economy to keep working, we should create new jobs for Moldovans who are massively returning from abroad”, Dodon stressed.

Among the measures in the banking and financial sector, aimed at supporting the businesses, the president pointed at the lowering of the base rate to the record rate of 3.25% by the National Bank of Moldova (NBM), which makes the credit resources in banks accessible.

“The lowering of required reserve ratio for banks to 34% from 39% starting from April 15 will support the liquidity on the market, releasing over 3 billion lei”, he said, recommending to economic agents to refrain from speculations on the currency market, due to which the national currency exchange rate has been artificially lowered.

According to the president, the NBM has sufficient reserve to maintain stability on the market, preventing the unjustified lowering of the Moldovan leu rate. The official rate of the Moldovan leu for April 7 is: MDL18.6369 : US$1. A month earlier it was MDL17.4244 : US$1.

Igor Dodon also stressed that the state will be implementing a tough control of the price formation to prevent unjustified raising of prices in the crisis period.

“There are no grounds for price growth. Moldova is completely ensured with all the essential goods. Even if some countries introduced restrictions on importing some types of cereals, we have products with which we can replace these to prevent any deficit or artificial price raising”, Dodon stated.