The state of the economy after the pandemic will be seen best at the end of this year. “We will see the figures and the official statistics at this yearend will show how we coped with the economic crisis, but the Government will definitely work further so as to help the business entities to overcome this situation,” MP of the Party of Socialists Vasile Bolea stated in the public debate “Government’s performance during six months since its appointment and during two months of state of emergency: pros and cons” that was staged by IPN News Agency.
According to the MP, we will yet see if the IMF’s forecasts that the GDP in Moldova will decline by 4% will come true when the GDP in the largest countries is expected to decrease by 7% to 9%.
In another development, Vasile Bolea said some of the opposition’s proposals concerning economic aspects and state support for businesses were inserted in the decisions taken by the Commission for Exceptional Situations.
The MP noted the unemployment benefit helped over 11,000 patent holders. The state also proposed paying the interest rates on loans taken by companies to pay salaries to employee who stay at home. Such a measure can help the entrepreneurs that do not want to lose their employees. Subsidies were provided to those who in March-April paid contributions for employees and they got 40-75% of those payments back.
Vasile Bolea said the opposition’s proposals concerning the economic sector were mainly populist in character and could not be implemented or, if they had been implemented, they would have had a disastrous effect on the economy. One of those proposals was to “print” about 30 billion lei as there is insufficient money in the economy. Such a measure would have led to higher inflation and profounder poverty. It was thus decided that the deficit caused by the crisis should be covered with foreign funds.
PAS MP Sergiu Litvinenco replied that the Party “Action and Solidarity” didn’t propose “printing” money.
The Socialist MP also said that the state budget during the state of emergency sustained costs of about 3.2 billion lei. The money was used to strengthen the health system and to implement infrastructure projects.
The debate titled “Government’s performance during six months since its appointment and during two months of state of emergency: pros and cons” was the 135th installment of the series of debates “Development of political culture through public debates” that are supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation.