Economist of the Institute for Development and Social Initiatives “Viitorul” Veaceslav Ioniţă estimates that the card payments in Moldova in 2019 exceeded 10 billion lei, even if the data for the whole last year are not yet available. The estimates confirm the hypothesis that the payments with cards double once in two years. In an analysis that is quoted by IPN, the economist said the Moldovans start to feel “the taste” of payments with bank cards. In 2020, these payments are expected to exceed 16 billion lei, which is 37 times more than ten years ago.

“We estimate that the total card payments made by the Moldovans in 2019 amount to 17.5 billion lei, 10.3 billion lei of which in Moldova and 7.2 billion lei outside the country,” stated the economist.

According to Veaceslav Ioniţă, in 2016 the Moldovans paid more by card abroad than inside the country, but later the situation changed. It is estimated that the card payments at internal level in 2020 will be twice higher in value than those made abroad. “In our opinion, online purchases abroad in 2020 will exceed 5 billion lei and the total card payments will rise to over 24 billion lei, of which 16 billion lei inside the country and 8 billion lei for purchases abroad,” he stated.