Former Prime Minister Ion Sturza anticipates losses of billions of lei to the Gross Domestic Product and in budget revenues. He said the previous statements by which the authorities announced the forecast 3% reduction in the GDP and losses of 7 billion lei are misleading, IPN reports.

“In the Republic of Moldova, the reduction in the Gross Domestic Product a will be of 20-25% a year. This is approximately 50 billion lei losses to the GDP. This means losses of 15-20 billion in budget revenues. These things are not dictated by the incompetence of the authorities, but by the virus. Such things happen in other states too and there is a mathematical correlation between what is going on in the pandemic area and what is going on in the economic sector and what measures should be taken by the governments so as to appropriately deal with these challenges,” Ion Sturza stated in the talk show “In Depth” on Pro TV channel.

Ion Sturza said the authorities should give up making nice statements as everyone will be affected by the pandemic.

“Let’s not mislead each other. Let’s not relax and consider that this is only a mild flu. This is a shock for 40-50% of the companies in the Republic of Moldova and Romania. It is a full stop, a concrete wall. For 80-85%, this is a shock. No one will remain outside the crisis, either those who apparently still work, like we do, or those who stopped work,” stated the former Premier.

The businessman forecasts that 300,000-400,000 persons in Moldova will enter technical unemployment that will be followed by definitive unemployment.

“We can make nice statements until the bills haven’t come. The bills will come at the end of the month or before Easter, when we will have to pay salaries. I think these will be the last salaries for 300,000-400,000 Moldovans who will enter technical unemployment, apparently supported by the company, but bill later enter definitive unemployment. We should not prepare temporary scenarios. The ninth wave comes and we should thus have a very clear dialogue with the citizens and our employees and tell them that it is technical unemployment at the first stage, which in many countries is 100% covered, and the de facto unemployment will come next,” stated Ion Sturza.

According to the businessman, 1 million persons placed in technical unemployment were announced in Romania in a week. This is 20% of the active labor force. In the U.S., 7 million citizens were placed in technological unemployment during two weeks, and the Republic of Moldova is not an exception.