The worldwide increase of raw material prices and energy resources, the war in the neighboring country and disruption of value chains reflected negatively the indicators of the external payments balance for the year 2022. Internal demand and the increase in prices for energy resources have determined the 27.1% increase in the value of imports of goods and services. At the same time, the associated risks of the military conflict in Ukraine influenced the outflow of personal transfers (2 times more). As a result, the current account deficit increased by 33.9%. Therefore, the country's external financing requirement relative to GDP reached the level of 15.6%, compared to 12.8% in 2021.

Trade environment.

International trade in goods recorded high growth in the year 2022. The positive external demand and the very good result of the agricultural sector in 2021 led to the increase of exports by 37.9%, totaling 4335.1 million US dollars. Re-exports of foreign goods (after processing and classics) made up 31.6% and increased about 1.9 times. Internal demand and the world prices evolution of energy resources, the military conflict in the neighboring country, the unfavorable climatic conditions (drought in the summer of 2022) are the factors that led to the acceleration of the value of imports by 28.5%, amounting to 9219.1 million US dollars. The volume of imports exceeded by about 2.1 times the volume of exports and, thus, the degree of coverage of imports with exports constituted 47%. The negative trade balance increased by 21.1%.

Total value of international trade with goods in 2022 was 13554.2 million US dollars, registering an increase of 31.3% compared to the year 2021, and of exports (FOB) with 1190.6 million dollars (+37.9%), and imports (CIF) – with 2042.4 million dollars (+28.5%).

Thus, the trade deficit (FOB/CIF) increased by 21.1%, from -4,032.2 million dollars to -4,884 million dollars.

About 52% of the increase in exports was provided by deliveries to European Union countries. With a weight of 58.6%, the deliveries of goods to this group of states increased by 32.4% compared to 2021 and contributed with 19.75 p.p. to the evolution of exports.

Exports to the CIS countries had a share of24.1% of the total. After the declines in the first months of year, in the context of the war in Ukraine, during the following months exports to the respective group of countries recovered significantly, recording an increase of about 2.2 times in 2022, contributing to the evolution exports by 18.3 p.p.

The group's exports to the other countries of the world have decreased by 0.9%. With a weight of 17.3% in total they have contributed negatively to the evolution of exports by 0.2 p.p.

Exports of domestic goods made up 68.4% (2763.9 million dollars) of total exports, increasing by 21.9% compared to 2021, the positive contribution to the evolution of exports constituting 17 p.p.

Re-exports of foreign goods (after processing and classic) constituted 31.6% of total exports, of about 1.9 times more compared to 2021, positively influencing the evolution of exports by 20.9 p.p.

Imports of goods by country groups in years 2019-2022, million US dollars

The biggest increase was recorded in the import from EU countries – 38.6%. With a weight of 47.4% of the total they have contributed positively to the dynamics of imports by 16.9 p.p.
Imports from CIS countries increased by 14.7%, following the significant increase in gas prices natural. With a share of 23.7% of the total, imports from the CIS contributed positively to the evolution of imports with 3.9 p.p.
The other countries of the world, holding a share of 28.9%, registered an increase of 25.7%, the positive contribution to the evolution of imports being 7.6 p.p.

The imports from EU accounted 4364.81 million USD (an increase by 38.6% compared to 2021) and represents 47.35% of total Moldovan imports.