In July 2014, IPN News Agency carried out an awareness raising campaign entitled “Myths and truths about the Association Agreement”, which tackled the main fears related to the process of signing and ratifying this accord. In almost three years, we decided to return to the same sources and the same subjects in order to see how things changed in evolution and if the expectations that existed before the signing of the Association Agreement with the EU were met.
“Consumer prices will increase as a result of the DCFTA”
Economic expert Viorel Chivriga said that after the Association Agreement with the European Union was signed, the prices didn’t increase, as it was anticipated. Moreover, the prices of many products decreased. There are a number of explanations. First of all, trade between Moldova and the EU member states became much more intense. Statistics show that Moldova’s trade with EU accounts for an impressive share and increases visibly both in terms of imports and exports. Trade with the neighboring states has also intensified. Romania became Moldova’s main trading partner.
At the same time, the halt in the import of European products into Russia had an impact on the diminution of prices, especially of the imported products. As a result, large quantities of products that were earlier delivered to the Russian Federation now found a place on the Moldovan market.
“If we speak about food and agrifood products, the sectors of the national economy, namely industry and agriculture, contributed to the modification of prices. The results achieved in these sectors in 2016 were better than in 2015. Production increased, but export was limited in parts and, as a result, internal undelivered supplies appeared and these influenced prices,” stated the economic expert.
In the same connection, Viorel Chivriga said the assertions of the critics of the Association Agreement remained a myth as they could not come true given the economic rules that are applied and produce results that deserve to be obtained. Prices in stores increased for the simple reason that Moldova faced serious problems at internal level in 2014, related to the financial-banking sector and the oscillations of the leu that became weaker and surely influenced prices in lei. “We must look at things objectively. There is no connection with the signing of the Free Trade Agreement or the Association Agreement. The situation is due to the poor management by our rulers, to the developments in the banking sector and to some reforms,” he stated.
Alina Marin, IPN
The article on the same issue published in July 2014 is available here.
