Moldova’s trade has been stagnating for the second year already. Exports of goods have fallen sharply, and in the last half year exports of services have also stagnated, finds economist Veaceslav Ioniță of the IDIS Viitorul think-tank.

“In 2023, there was a fairly pronounced decrease in the export of goods, but there was a slight increase in the export of services in the first half of the year and a slight stagnation in the second half of last year”, said Veaceslav Ioniță.

As for the export of services, the expert said that until the third quarter of 2023, there was a continuous spectacular growth. From the third quarter of 2023, there is a slight stagnation. Whereas in 2023 service exports totaled 2.44 billion dollars, in the first quarter of 2024 they were 2.41 billion dollars in annual value.

Passenger transport was the largest industry in the export structure of the Republic of Moldova. The coronavirus pandemic has dramatically collapsed the transport industry. It was later revived, somewhat, against the background of the war waged by the Russian Federation in Ukraine. Currently it is in a slight increase, but the growth has slowed down because Ukraine is looking for other solutions than the ones that the Republic of Moldova can offer, and this has a negative impact on our exports of transport services, the economist said.

Regarding the export of educational services, the economic analyst noted that in 2022 the strongest growth was recorded, there were many foreign students, including from Ukraine. “Moldova has enormous potential regarding the export of educational services, but efforts need to be made to improve the situation and increase this indicator”.

2021 was very good in terms of agricultural production. “Unfortunately, 2022 was not the best year and the Republic of Moldova’s exports were practically at the level of 2021, after which they decreased, but formally they were a little higher due to the effect of the war. 2023 was a year with exceptional exports, thanks to the export of fruit. While everything was falling, the fruit caused growth, which allowed for a slight increase. Now everything has been at a standstill for about a year, and the decrease that is being registered is that the Republic of Moldova has lost the possibility to import from Ukraine, but also to export to Ukraine”, the economist said.