Moldova is the only country in the world where the citizens employed in the country are fewer in number than those who went to work abroad. Also, the average salary in Moldova is the lowest in Europe, economic expert Veaceslav Ionita was quoted by IPN as saying in the talk show “Direct access” produced by NTV Moldova channel.
“We have more Moldovans working abroad than in Moldova. During the past 15 years, the nationals working abroad sent home over US$ 27 billion and the salary in Moldova was US$ 19 billion lei. So, we earned less in the country than the volume of remittances,” said the expert.
According to Veaceslav Ionita, the average salary in Moldova is the lowest in Europe, of €212. Inside the pay system, each third employee gets a salary lower than 3,000 lei and this is serious when the average official salary is 6,000 lei. In culture and education, each second employee receives such a salary. “It is not about pensioners, but about persons who have to maintain children and parents,” he stated.
The expert considers the pension is another element that causes poverty. It is considered that a pensioners lives decently when this gets a pension that represents 42% of the average official salary. Thus, the average pension in Moldova should be 2,500 lei. “In our country, the salary in 2011 was 3,000 lei, while the pension was 900 lei. Now the salary is 6,000 lei and the average pension should be 1,800 lei, but is 1,400 lei. In 2011 the pension represented 30% of the average salary, which is not much, but now represents 25%. So, our pensioners are much poorer,” stated Veaceslav Ionita.
Socialist MP Grigore Novac said the Moldovans live mainly at the poverty line. Practically each family has someone who works abroad to maintain the members. The situation in the country is much worse than public opinion polls show. It is not surprising that the reforms initiated after 2009 didn’t produce results as these are related to the incorrect direction followed by the county. “The Europeans allocated millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions for the proposed reforms, but the result is regrettably not the expected one,” stated the MP, noting a large part of the allotted money didn’t reach the destination.
