The National Bank said the external debt of Moldova has decreased. At the end of 2014, the public and publicly guaranteed external debt came to US$1.731,05 billion (- 2.5% on the end of 2013), while the non-guaranteed private debt to US$4.763,83 billion (-2.7%). Contacted by IPN, economic expert Tatiana Lariushin said that things are much more serious beyond these figures. A country doing reforms needs a growing budget and a rise in debts when profound reforms are implemented would be more logical in Moldova’s case.
Tatiana Lariushin stated that Moldova receives a lot of grants and technical assistance from the development partners, but no country developed based on grants only. Serious reforms that really change people’s lives are done by investments. To attract investments, profound structural reforms are needed. “What money can we settle this debt with is the second question as, in the absence of a memorandum with the International Monetary Fund, there are great risks and uncertainty as regards our capacity to clear this debt. A lot of things are very unclear. The 2015 budget hasn’t been yet agreed and this affects first of all the businesses as they cannot plan their costs, not speaking about the development of the business or of the country,” she stated.
The expert gave as example the situation of the banks in Moldova, which allow making a deposit for at most six months. “If the banks, which represent the business sector, do not know what the situation will be like in six months, it is serious. Such situations haven’t existed earlier. The goal of the banks is to attract money because they make profit this way. If the banks cannot make forecasts for a period longer than six months, what do the foreign investors think about in such a situation? Of course they are not sure that their money will be safe. We witness a situation with big risks that worries the development partners and distances the strategic investors that will never come when the business sector is not well,” said Tatiana Lariushin.
She also said that the IMF is the ‘eyes and ears’ of the development partners and the non-signing of a memorandum with this organization shows that there is distrust in the Moldovan Government’s seriousness for assuming responsibilities before the development partners.
