● MONDAY, August 3
PM: IMF mission could come at the start of September
The authorities expect that a mission of the International Monetary Fund will come to Moldova during the first ten days of September. Until then the executive is to take a number of actions at internal level, first of all in the financial-banking sector, where the IMF asks for prompt solutions, Prime Minister Valeriu Strelet said after a field meeting of the Cabinet on August 3. “The Committee for Financial Stability will be convened on Wednesday to discuss a number of important problems, a part of which will be made public,” said the Prime Minister, adding that the Committee will also analyze the information provided by the National Bank and will formulate recommendations.
Acting director named at Moldova’s Railways
The state-run company Moldova’s Railways has an acting director. This is Iurii Topala, who will manage the company until a new director is appointed. The company’s spokeswoman Inga Nosatyi has told that Iurii Topala was named acting director based on an order issued by the minister of transport and road infrastructure. It is not yet known when a contest to select a new director will be held.
Budget forecasts for second half of year are gloomy, “Expert-Grup”
The fulfillment of all the components of the 2015 budget is affected, while the forecasts for the second half of this year are even gloomier, shows a study presented by the independent think tank “Expert-Grup” on August 3. “Expert-Grup” program director Dumitru Budianschi said the collection of revenues is affected by the reduction in the fiscal incomes, the halt in external financing and the considerable stealing from the banking system. “The problems in 2015 derive from internal factors, namely the depreciation of the leu and the instability in the banking sector that had notable consequences,” he stated.
EIB supports winemakers to purchase technical sorts of grapes
The economic entities working in the winemaking sector can access funds for purchasing technical sorts of grapes from the loan of the European Investment Bank ((EIB) through the program for restructuring the winemaking and winegrowing sector “Wine Way”. The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry announced that the EIB approved the allocation of €10 million for financing the purchase of grapes from local producers. Under the requirements stipulated by the EIB, financing is granted to winemakers that earlier benefitted from loans within this program. An applicant can get at most €600,000 or at most 50% of the sum of the purchase contracts. The funds will be used exclusively for buying grapes from local grape growers. The applicants must present the standardized purchase contracts signed with grape producers to the Program Implementation Unit and fill out the participation form.
● TUESDAY, August 4
Experts formulate suggestions for possible anti-crisis plan of new Government
The newly formed executive needs an anti-crisis plan with measures that will precede the actions of the government program, consider experts of the Independent Analytical Center “Expert-Grup”, who made a study entitled “What should a possible anti-crisis plan of the new Government contain”. Asked to highlight some of the required measures, one of the authors of the study Veaceslav Negruta, ex-minister of finance, said the anti-crisis plan should derive from the radiography of crises. An independent entity should carry out a functional analysis of the public institutions and of the inspection bodies. The useless institutions or those with powers that overlap should be eliminated. The communication between institutions must be optimized and upright and competent persons should be promoted to the public service.
● WEDNESDAY, August 5
CardDAV technology in The Bat! v7
The Chisinau-based software developing company Ritlabs SRL is announcing the release of its popular email client The Bat! version 7. The new version introduces a feature to keep the address book contacts up-to-date. Ritlabs SRL says the updated version will help users keep their address books always up-to-date. The CardDAV technology allows syncing The Bat!’s address book contacts with Google and iCloud contacts as well as with other servers that support this protocol. All the changes that a user makes in his address book in The Bat! are sent to the server, and the server syncs contacts across other devices.
EU provides subsidies for purchasing biomass boilers
The EU funded Moldova Energy and Biomass Project is launching, in partnership with the Energy Efficiency Agency, a Subsidy Program for the Procurement of Biomass Boilers designed for Households, Micro- and Small Enterprises. The subsidy amount is €1,300 and €700, set-up depending on the technical parameters of the selected boiler. The total number of Subsidy Program beneficiaries will amount to 300, including 250 households, and 50 enterprises. “The Subsidy Program has been extended to Energy and Biomass Project 2 due to the success achieved in the first phase of the project. The rules for filing application documents remain almost the same. A new element for the new project phase is the scale in subsidy depending on the selected boiler performance,” stated Alexandru Ursul, manager of the Energy and Biomass Project. Thus, the subsidy amount constitutes: €1,300 for biomass boilers with a yield equal to or higher than 85%, minimum 36 hours of operational autonomy, automated control panel, used biofuel – briquettes and/or pellets; €700 for biomass boilers with a yield equal to or higher than 75%, minimum 6 hours of operational autonomy, automated control panel, and used biofuel – briquettes.
National Bank governor pleads for liquidation of three banks
The governor of the National Bank of Moldova Dorin Dragutanu maintains that the three banks placed under the special administration – Banca de Economii, Banca Sociala and Unibank – must be liquidated. “These banks do not have a future and are not viable from financial viewpoint. They do not have viable information systems. They do not have products and their clients mainly left them,” the governor said after the August 5 meeting of the Supreme Security Council. Dorin Dragutanu said that he earlier presented a plan for closing down the three banks and some of the state institutions, including the Government, should take preparatory steps in this regard. First of all, all the social payments should be transferred from Banca de Economii to another institution, most probably Moldova’s Post Office. All the treasury accounts should also be transferred from Banca de Economii so as to avoid the blocking of the activity of the public institutions. A contest will be staged to select one or several banks and this is within the competence of the Ministry of Finance.
European support for modernizing agriculture
The Government approved the bill to ratify the financing agreement between Moldova and the European Commission concerning the implementation of the ENPARD Program – EU Support to Moldova for Agriculture and Rural Development that was signed in Chisinau on March 26. The value of the financing agreement is €64 million, €53 million of which represents the sector budget support component (agriculture and rural development), while €11 million is for implementing the additional component. The contribution of the producers that received grants is €750,000. The agreement is valid for 84 months. The tranches will be disbursed depending on the way the accord conditions are met and on the results achieved. The first tranche of €17 million, as it was earlier announced, will be disbursed next year.
Government endorses bill to ratify Free Trade Agreement with Turkey
The Cabinet approved the bill to ratify the Free Trade Agreement between Moldova and Turkey, which was signed on September 11, 2014, and will submit it to Parliament. According to the Ministry of Economy, the accord will contribute to developing harmonious economic relations between the signatory countries by establishing loyal competition in the bilateral trade. Through this agreement, Moldova hopes to continue to attract investments from Turkey to its economy. The accord will take effect on the first day of the second month of the date when the sides exchange written notifications confirming that the internal ratification procedures were completed.
Common tax of 7% for IT companies could be used from 2016, Pavel Filip
The law that provides for the exemption of the IT companies from paying the VAT and the customs taxes on the import of computation equipment and institutes a common tax of 7%, which was recently passed by Parliament in the first reading, can take effect on January 1, 2016, Minister of Information and Communication Technology Pavel Filip said in an interview for Radio Free Europe. He voiced hope that the law will be adopted in the second reading in September. The minister said that when this bill was drafted, a complex analysis was carried out in concert with the development partners. When a common tax is applied, the companies do not need accounting departments and the rules of the game are very clear and simple. “They do not need to pay salaries ‘in envelope’ and to hide the profit as only one tax is paid,” he stated.
● THURSDAY, August 6
ANRE will analyze recommendation to review gas tariffs
The National Agency for Energy Regulation (ANRE) on its website says that it will analyze the Supreme Security Council’s recommendation to review the tariffs of the natural gas supplied to end-users and the Ministry of Economy’s forecast concerning the evolution of the purchase prices of natural gas so as to establish if there are sufficient arguments for reviewing the given tariffs. The ANRE said the July 18 decision to endorse the new natural gas prices was taken based on the average annual purchase price of the natural gas imported this year – US$260 per 1,000 cubic meters.
Fuel prices reduced slightly
Five oil companies announced that they reduced the prices of several types of fuels by 0.10 to 0.23 lei per liter on August 4. They informed the National Agency for Energy Regulation about this. The average price of diesel fuel sold by four companies decreased from 16.3 lei per liter to 16.07 lei, while the average price of liquefied petroleum gas – from 9.47 lei per liter to 9.37 lei. The retail price of the gasoline sold by the company that announced the cheapening declined from 18.27 lei per liter to 18.17 lei. According to the calculations presented by the five companies, the price reductions are due to the diminution of the purchase prices of these types of fuel.
Central bank revises up rate of inflation
The National Bank of Moldova revised the rate of inflation for 2015 up to 9.3%, an increase of 1.2 percentage points on the forecast made in April. In 2016 the inflation is projected to reach 11.6%, up 5.2 percentage points from the previous forecast. “The temporary passing by the inflation of the upper limit of the interval of 5% ±1.5 percentage points from the National Bank’s inflation target is caused by the depreciation of the national currency during the first six months of this year and the current and future rises in the tariffs of public utilities,” said the central bank’s governor Dorin Dragutanu, noting that inflationist factors will prevail in the immediate period. The updated forecasts imply a series of risks such as the rise in food prices. “After the second quarter of 2017, the rate of inflation will return to the variation interval of 5% ±1,5 p.p., targeted by the National Bank,” stated the governor.
Bread prices expected to rise by up to 15%
The bread prices could increase by up to 15%. The Bakers’ Association of Moldova informed the authorities about the intention to raise the prices, invoking the rise in flour prices and in the gas and electricity tariffs. Such an announcement was made by Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Ion Sula on August 6. The minister told a news conference that the bakers’ intention will be examined in a meeting of the Product Council. In this regard, the Association was asked to present the detailed calculations. A decision is to be taken in the near future.
Wheat this year will be more expensive
This year the wheat will cost more, up to 3 lei per kg. In a news conference on August 6, Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Ion Sula said the despite the high temperatures, there were harvested 920,000 tonnes of wheat. Compared with the average for the last five years, the harvest is higher, but it is lower than last year. The average crop per hectare was 2.8 tonnes, but there were also set record highs of 7 tonnes per hectare. “This volume guarantees the country’s food security and fodder security. We will be able to export a rather large quantity,” said the minister, noting that Moldova needs 340,000 tonnes of wheat for the internal needs.According to the minister, some 65% of the harvested wheat is food wheat, as opposed to 40% last year. Thus, the wheat could be sold at a higher piece this year. In 2014, 1 kg of wheat cost 1.8 lei to 2.2 lei, while this year the prices vary between 2.8 lei and 3 lei. 1 kg of barley costs 2.5 to 2.7 lei, as against 1.5 to 1.7 lei last year.
17 producers can resume export of fruit to Russia
Russia lifted the ban on the export of fruit for 17 Moldovan fruit producers. The export can be resumed on August 7. The announcement about the lifting of the restrictions was published on the website of the Russian phytosanitary service Rosselkhoznadzor on August 6. The exports of the 17 companies will be guaranteed by the National Food Safety Agency of Moldova, in an ‘extended trial’ regime. The 17 producers can export apples, plums, pears, quinces, apricots, cherries, peaches, nectarines and sloes.
● FRIDAY, August 7
Volume of new loans decreased, but interest on them didn’t rise much, NBM
The volume of new loans released in Moldovan lei in the second quarter of this year diminished by 16.6% on the second quarter of 2014. The average quarterly interest rate on the new loans was 13.8%, as opposed to 11.27% in the second quarter of last year, shows a report on inflation presented by the governor of the National Bank of Moldova (NBM) Dorin Dragutanu in a news conference. “The interest rate on loans increased, but not as much as it was anticipated in some comments,” stated the governor. Since the start of this year until June 30, the balance of loans had increased by 0.5% (121 million lei) to 43.6 billion lei. The loans in lei represented 58% of all the loans, a slight decline compared with the corresponding period last year.
“Moldovagaz”: Annulment of new tariffs will cause considerable damage
The public utility SA “Moldovagaz” expresses its concern about the demands to review the recent rise in the natural gas tariffs. In a communique, the company says a decision to annul or suspend the new tariffs will cause considerable damage, will worsen suddenly the financial situation of the enterprises from the gas sector and will lead to the accumulation of a higher debt to Gazprom. As a result, an increased risk of interruption in the supply of natural gas in winter will appear. According to the company, the regulated natural gas tariffs haven’t been reviewed since September 2011. In the period, “Moldovagaz” and its affiliated companies sustained losses of about 3.9 billion lei. The debt to Gazprom, without the Transnistrian region, for the period between 2011 and the first quarter of 2015 rose to US$454.9 million.
Rospotrebnadzor allows five Moldovan wine companies to export to Russia
The federal service Rospotrebnadzor authorized five companies from Gagauzia to export wine to Russia. These are: “Kazaiak Vin”, SRL “Invinprom”, “Vinaria Bostavan”, ”Tomai Vinex”, and “Sardrisvin”. On its website, Rospotrebnadzor says it is considered the possibility of extending the list of producers from Gagauzia that will be allowed to export wine to Russia.
Three banks that will be liquidated no longer accept deposits
The three banks that are under special administration – Banca de Economii, Banca Sociala and Unibank – no longer accept deposits starting with today, August 7. The measure is contained in a decision taken by the Administration Board of the National Bank of Moldova. It is banned signing new contracts and extending the contacts signed before the date of the given ordinance. The liquidation of the three banks was recommended by the Supreme Security Council that convened on August 5. The same day, after the meeting of the National Committee on Financial Stability, held in the Government Building, Prime Minister Valeriu Strelet announced the launch of the liquidation process.
● SATURDAY, August 8
Overdue agricultural subsidies will be paid by end-August
The overdue agricultural subsidies of 230 million lei accumulated last year will be paid by the end of this month, said the vice director of the Agency for Intervention and Payments in Agriculture Nicolae Ciubuc. “There were delays in signing the payment documents at the Ministry of Finance, but things returned to normality with the installation of the new Government and this month we hope to clear the debts related to the agricultural subsidies for 2014,” the official said in a talk show on Radio Moldova. As to the subsidies for this year, there were received over 1,600 applications for subsides of 250 million lei. The agriculture subsidization fund this year totals 610 million lei. “We have 130 million lei left, for which we will receive applications from producers that made investments. We hope we will have enough money to satisfy all the demands. If not, the debts will be settled next year,” stated Nicolae Ciubuc.
