Expert-Grup: Moldova is last among transition countries in terms of trade performance

Moldova is the last among 27 transition countries in terms of the trade performance obtained during after the independence. The trade performance is defined by the relation between the growth rate of the exports and the imports for a certain country. The Expert-Grup think tank has analyzed the period 1995- 2007, when the Moldovan imports rose 4.4 times while the exports – only 80 %. Moldova's performance index was 0.4. Romania's index – 0.88, Ukraine's index – 1.06. Russia recorded an index of 1.46 points. Valeriu Prohnitchi, the executive manager of Expert-Grup, says a faster growth of imports compared with the growth of exports is seen in 9 out of 27 countries considered. However such countries as Azerbaijan, Belarus, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan managed to expand their exports more than countries recording better reform indices. In several cases, the trade expansion was based on exporting hydrocarbons, which grew dearer almost steadily during the considered period. However, in most of the cases, the exports growth seems to be related to the development of the producing capacities of the countries, following capital investments and structural, institutional reforms. “One of the factors of the slow growth of Moldovan exports, which determined this counter-performance of Moldova can be considered the generalized and prolonged crisis of the Moldovan economy,” Valeriu Prohnitchi says. Despite opening up exterior rather early, Moldova failed to implement structural reforms to increase the export offer. Concomitantly, the increase of the people's incomes, especially after 2000, determined by the remittances excessively contributed to finance the imports, says the expert