The third Business Barometer in the Republic of Moldova shows an improvement in the investment climate. In particular, the number of enterprises that were seriously affected by the Russian aggression against Ukraine decreased compared with the indexes of the Barometer of May 2023. Also, in some of the sectors, such as the construction sector, the turnover even increased.
In a news conference hosted by IPN, France’s Ambassador to the Republic of Moldova, Paul Graham, said the Barometer also showed that there are yet many problems. The situation is less positive on the left side of the Nistru River. The situation in the agricultural sector is worrisome. Despite the lower inflation, production costs remain high. The lack of human resources is an important constraint to the development of companies in the Republic of Moldova. At the same time, those who need to develop, to raise loans from banks need confidence and, even if the level of confidence has risen, it is yet insufficient. That’s why the process of joining the EU should bring that dose of confidence to the enterprises in Moldova.
Mihai Bologan, IData executive director, noted that the general value of the index of the Business Barometer reached -9.24, pointing to a significant improvement compared with the last two waves for all the categories of companies. The situation in the construction sector is the best, while the state of affairs in agriculture is the worst. Last year, a number of companies projected redundancies, while the current Barometer shows a number of companies expect that the number of employees will grow rather than decline.
A significant number of companies on the left side of the Nistru anticipate that the investments over the next few months will rise. In the rest of the country, the situation is more moderate. A slight rise in investments in medium-sized and small companies, of the trade and constriction sectors, is expected. As regards the turnover, the situation on the left side of the Nistru is more pessimistic as a higher number of companies expect that the volume of sales will decrease rather than increase.
Mihai Bolocam noted that the business climate situation a year ago was critical, with an index of over -40, but now this is at -10.68.
A series of companies in the country consider the state policies continue having a rather negative than positive impact. The situation is yet slightly better than last year, when this indicator was -70. The large companies are the most optimistic ones and have bigger trust in the economy.
Ovidiu-Viorel Năftănăilă, of the Embassy of Romania in Chisinau, said the Business Barometer is an extremely useful instrument not only for the authorities, but also for the business community and potential investors. It is an important instrument for civil society and for development partners that will calibrate and shape in the future their intervention instruments in Moldova taking into account the elements coming towards them from the business community from here.
Emmanuel Skoulios, president of the France-Moldavie Chamber of Commerce and Industry, stated that after the first Business Barometer, the presented results were worrisome. Now the results show resilience in managers of enterprises of the Republic of Moldova and relative confidence in the measures adopted by the authorities this year.
The data were collected from 460 companied, 400 of which are based on the right side of the Nistru, while 60 are based on the left side of the Nistru. The study is the third research wave. The other two surveys were conducted in December 2022 and May 202.
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