Foreign Aid to Moldova State Budget Half as Planned

In the first six months of the year, the Republic of Moldova registered an increase in external aid in the form of grants or loans to support the budget by approximately 20 per cent in comparison to the same period last year. However, this sum is about half as planned in the papers. In total, according to the Finance Ministry, about 162.88 million euros were collected in the state budget in the form of grants and loans, which is equivalent to about 3.54 billion lei, agora.md reported, citing mold-street.com. The main purpose of this aid is to support the budget. In the first quarter of 2023, 824.49 million lei was received. Most of it, about 25.85 million euros, comes from the International Monetary Fund loans. A grant of 283.3 million lei from the UNDP, Switzerland and Sweden's contribution to the Energy Vulnerability Reduction Fund should also be added to this sum. In the second quarter, receipts reached 2.71 billion lei. This time, the IMF loans provided the biggest budget assistance - 86.85 million euros or about 1.73 billion lei. Macro-financial assistance was provided by the European Commission in the form of a loan of about 39.8 million euros and 10 million euros as a grant. In total about 985 million lei. Meanwhile, in 2022, foreign aid amounted to $55.07 million and 95.86 million euros, equivalent to more than 2.9 billion lei.