Moldovans working abroad could import world crisis into Moldova, national experts say

The world crisis could reach Moldova through the Moldovan citizens that work abroad, economic experts Veaceslav Negruta and Sergiu Gaibu said at Wednesday’s meeting of the Press Club. They said that Moldova would intensely feel the effects of the crisis in 2009, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to Sergiu Gaibu, economic expert at the Institute for Development and Social Initiative (IDIS) “Viitorul”, another two ways by which the crisis could be imported into Moldova are the banking system, through the agency of the several commercial banks that have foreign capital, and the construction industry. He said that the construction sector has been already affected by the crisis because it is not so easy to take out a mortgage anymore and the rates of interest are close to 30%, as against 18% a year ago. Gaibu said that a larger number of Moldovans that now work in European states will return home because their employers would offer their jobs to European citizens. When back in Moldova, remittances will plunge considerably in volume and, as a result, the purchasing power of the Moldovans will also decrease. Owing to the lower purchasing power, imports would plummet, especially of consumer goods. The economists expressed concern about the fact that the Moldovan authorities “do not want to admit that the crisis has already hit Moldova”. “The situation in Moldova is not yet critical, but the authorities should take measures to alleviate the possible social and economic effects,” Gaibu said, adding that the jobless rate will increase significantly in the near future. According to Veaceslav Negruta, the Moldovan authorities’ calmness arouses suspicion, though they say that measures are being taken to prevent the effects of the crisis in Moldova. “It looks as if Moldova expects to see what steps will take the large states that jointly fight to combat and prevent the economic, financial and social crisis, so that the Moldovan Government could later decide whether to implement or not certain anti-crisis polices,” Negruta said. The experts avoided saying what areas the ordinary people could invest money in as all the sectors of the economy and the social sphere are now rather vulnerable and unsafe, as they said. The Moldovan authorities have repeatedly said that Moldova would not be affected by the economic crisis that hit the largest part of the countries, including the most developed ones.