The current account of the balance of payments of Moldova in the first nine months of last year saw a deficit of US$836.49 million, up 63.2% compared with the deficit recorded in January-September 2017. The deficit of the current account represented 10% of the GDP, as opposed to 7.5% in the first nine months of 2017, IPN reports, quoting provisional data of the National Bank of Moldova.
The trade deficit was US$2.393,69 billion, up 26.8%. Imports grew more (+21.3%) than exports (+13%) compared with January-September 2017. The exports of agrifood products were larger than of other goods, as usual, and rose by 14.8% on the first nine months of 2017, representing 56.5% of the total exports. The mineral products prevailed in imports, with a share of 18.5%, being by 30.8% higher.
The 37.7% rise in the positive balance of the balance of services, to US$287.63 million, was due to the 22.6% increase in exports compared with January – September 2017, while the imports of services grew by 18%. The export of travel services increased by 28.1%, of raw material processing services by 43,25%, of informatics services by 49.9%. The rise in the imports of services stemmed mainly from the increase in the import of travel services (+21.6%), transport services (+14.4%) and other business services (+39%).
The surplus of primary income in January – September 2018 rose by 11.1% compared with the corresponding period of 2017, to US$ 407.45 million, US$ 151.48 million of which in the third quarter. The remuneration of resident salary earners for work provided for non-resident employers grew by 12.1% to US$ 689.60 million. Simultaneously, the outflows of primary income increased by 17.7% mainly owing to the 21.2% increase in incomes from investments intended as payment for non-residents.
According to the central bank, Moldova’s gross external debt rose by 3.4% compared with the start of the year in nominal value, but decreased by 8 percentage points against the GDP. On September 30, 2018, it was US$ 7.199,10 billion. The public and publicly guaranteed debt was 27.1% of the total external debt, coming to US$ 1.947,85 billion (-2.6% on the start of the year). The long-term debt accounted for 72.2% of the gross external debt.
