Deputy Economy Minister says higher trade balance deficit issue should not be exaggerated

Deputy Minister of Economy and Trade Iurie Muntean says that the problem of the rise in the negative balance of trade should not be exaggerated. The Economy Ministry forecast that the negative trade balance in 2008 will be $3.3 billion, up by over 1 billion dollars. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the balance-of-trade deficit for 11 months of 2007 was $3.05 billion, Info-Prim Neo reports. “We are preoccupied with these problems, but nothing in economy can be done overnight. Look at hour neighbors, in particular the EU member Romania. After 17 years of development, Romania’s exports are larger than the imports, but during all these years the trade balance had been negative,” Iurie Muntean told a roundtable meeting. The deputy minister said that the higher trade balance deficit stemmed from the rise in investments in restoring fixed assets, the increase in the prices of energy resources and in the population’s incomes that resulted in a larger demand for products, including imported ones, etc. The price of fixed assets – equipment and instruments – is high and this determines the growth rate of imports, the official said. “$1.4 billion of the foreign direct investment out of the over $2.4 billion attracted by Moldova during the independence years came to the country during the past three years. Most of it was invested in fixed assets,” Iurie Muntean said. “Given that the Moldovan economy is developing, the demand for energy resources is also increasing. Thus, the imports grow,” he added. “We should not go into panic. We now should focus on increasing the Moldovan exports, improving their quality and diversifying them. The exported products should have a higher value added. This would enable us to gradually reduce the balance-of-trade deficit,” Muntean said.