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.