Dodon: Authorities Cannot Cope with Deep Crisis in Economy

The former Moldovan president cited statistics showing that the volume of exports in the third quarter slightly decreased to $960 million. Dodon notes that more than half of this volume has nothing to do with the Moldovan economy, but is Ukrainian re-export through the country, tass.ru reports. Moldova's economy continues to plunge into a deep crisis that Natalia Gavrilita’s government, formed by the ruling Action and Solidarity Party, cannot cope with. The former president of the republic, Igor Dodon, said this on Thursday. “In the third quarter of 2022, GDP collapsed by 10.3%. Agricultural production fell by more than 20% and by the end of the year we forecast a 30 percent decline. The drought was also partly to blame. However, since spring we knew that the crops would be much lower due to a lack of fertilizers, as Moldova buys 75% of all fertilizers from Russia, and the government has not come up with effective measures to support the farmers,” Dodon wrote in his Telegram channel. He cited statistics showing that the volume of exports in the third quarter fell slightly to $960 million, but more than half of this volume had nothing to do with the Moldovan economy, but was Ukrainian re-exports through the territory of the republic. “Domestic exports actually collapsed by more than half and amounted to less than half of all exports. This collapse is the biggest in Moldova’s history and shows the dire state of the economy and the inability of the government to launch the drivers of economic growth after the three-year crisis, which leads us to the fourth year of crisis,” said Dodon, once the deputy prime minister in charge of the economy. The former head of Moldova believes that the crisis has affected all the major sectors of economy, entrepreneurial activity and the consumption sphere of the population. “But despite this, the country’s leadership remains in the so-called comfort zone, blaming everyone and everything but themselves for what is happening. This approach shows that the authorities either do not understand what is happening <...> or, on the contrary, they understand everything perfectly well and are deliberately ruining national economy,” he stressed.