● WEDNESDAY, January 2
Tax Service last year collected by over 4bn lei more than in 2017
The revenues collected by the State Tax Service to the national public budget in 2018 were by 12.8% higher compared with a year before. These totaled 36.9 billion lei, which is an increase of 4.2 billion lei on 2017. An amount of 16.5 billion lei was collected as revenues into the state budget in the course of last year. This is by 2.2 billion lei or 15.1% more than in 2017. The revenues accumulated by the local budgets came to 3.8 billion lei, a rise of 330.4 million lei or 9.6% on 2017.
● THURSDAY, January 3
Evolution of Moldova’s international accounts in third quarter of 2018
The current account of the balance of payments of Moldova in the first nine months of last year saw a deficit of US$836.49 million, up 63.2% compared with the deficit recorded in January-September 2017. The deficit of the current account represented 10% of the GDP, as opposed to 7.5% in the first nine months of 2017. The trade deficit was US$2.393,69 billion, up 26.8%. Imports grew more (+21.3%) than exports (+13%) compared with January-September 2017. The exports of agrifood products were larger than of other goods, as usual, and rose by 14.8% on the first nine months of 2017, representing 56.5% of the total exports. The mineral products prevailed in imports, with a share of 18.5%, being by 30.8% higher.
2018 was a good year for Moldovan winemakers, expert
Wine expert Ion Luca, who is a member of the Association of Small Wine Producers of Moldova, said 2018 was generally a good year for Moldovan winemakers. The grape harvest was good, but the rain that fell in July affected mainly the white sorts. On the other hand, the autumn was very long, without rain and with very good temperatures. This enabled to extend the harvesting period. In an interview for Radio Free Europe the expert said each year sees challenges, but these can be dealt with depending on the skillfulness of winemakers. “The sector in 2018 grew, in particular exports, as the largest part of the wine made in Moldova is exported, both bottled and non-bottled wine. The harvest of 2017 was partially sold, but partially it is maturing. That’s why incomes from the 2017 record harvest are yet to be earned. The sales of both non-bottled wine and bottled wine increased,” stated the expert.
● FRIDAY, January 4
Private individuals saved banks from loan crisis after 2014, opinion
The private individuals were those who saved the banks from the loan crisis experienced after 2014. On the one hand, the deposits started to grow in volume. On the other hand, the volume of released loans fell below the level witnessed before the crisis. Currently, the total balance of loans is of about 32 billion lei, as opposed to 48 million lei before 2014, journalist Victor Ursu was saying in the talk show “15 minutes of economic realism”. According to Victor Ursu, the volume of loans diminished owing to the stricter rules imposed by the National Bank of Moldova and to the Basel III regulatory framework that envisions a broader diversification of the client base and high-quality risk management. This way, after reducing the volume of loans the banks had larger liquidity (rise in the balance of deposits) that they could not use. They started to orient to private individuals who are actually the best payers, with a nonperforming loan rate of 3%.
Official foreign exchange reserves US$ 19.4m down
The official foreign exchange reserves at the end of last December came to US$ 2.995,19 billion, a decrease of US$ 19.4 million on November 30, 2018. The National Bank of Moldova said the decline was due to the net interventions on the domestic currency market in the form of currency sales of US$ 21.2 million. Also, the Ministry of Finance made payments of US$ 12.13 million, while US$ 6.55 million went to service Moldova’s public foreign debt. The exchange rates of the currencies that form part of the foreign exchange reserves diminished against the U.S. dollar (US$ 2.24m).
