The business entities finish the year wakened and confused, while the population is poorer, said economist Viorel Gîrbu. In a comment for IPN, he noted that 2022 was difficult in almost all the areas. There was drought in agriculture, regional imbalance in industry and also the energy crisis, inflation crisis and the decline in purchasing power.

“The authorities didn’t really know what to do to support the real sector, while the National Bank of Moldova significantly worsened the monetary policy and maintained a powerful, overestimated leu,” stated Viorel Gîrbu.

At the end of the third quarter, the GDP declined by 4% and is expected to decrease further towards the end of the year.

The expectations for next year are not really optimistic. “We expect the national currency will depreciate at the beginning of the year due to the bad agricultural year and the costs associated with the import of energy resources,” stated Viorel Gîrbu.

In 2023, the economy will possibly recover following this year’s economic decline, but there is no hope that this return will be firm. “If no additional crises emerge, the economy will recover slowly, during 2-3 years,” stated the economist.