Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Vasile Bumacov, in a program on Radio Moldova, said the political events in Ukraine have a negative impact on the economic situation in Moldova as Ukraine is an important economic and commercial partner, IPN reports.

“For the time being, the impact is not substantial, but we already received signals from exporters. The exporters of wine to Kazakhstan face hindrances when transiting the territory of Russia. If obstacles are also encountered in Ukraine, through which our products are transported, producers’ losses will be significant,” said the minister, adding that the anti-hail rockets system cannot be supplemented as rocket parts are brought from Russia through Ukraine.

Dumitru Budianschi, program director at the think tank “Expert-Grup”, said the events in Ukraine can have political as well as economic effects on Moldova and other countries of the region. “Some of the Moldovan companies that have cooperation relations with Ukraine started to experience serious difficulties. The oscillations in the exchange rates of the national currencies of Ukraine and Russia affect the exchange rate of the leu,” he explained.

Expert of the Market Economy Institute Viorel Garbu said a large part of the goods imported by Moldova for production and consumption transit Ukraine, including a large part of the energy resources. This fact should not be neglected.

Economic analyst Viorel Chivriga said it will be impossible to avoid the economic consequences as Ukraine is the fourth most important partner of Moldova. Besides, there are many companies with Ukrainian capital in Moldova and many Moldovans have businesses in Ukraine.

The experts do not believe that the announced penalties will help improve the situation and pleaded for implementing the agreements signed within the CIS to show that these accords are viable.