
Inflation in Moldova is currently the highest in Europe, standing at 33 percent – a major hit on the already poor population.
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After the coming to power of Sandu’s PAS, the country is also free from the influence of oligarchs within the ruling authorities – a rare achievement among the post-Soviet nations. Its currency, the leu, has been relatively stable in recent years.

Nevertheless, Moldova managed to clean up its banking sector and to preserve macroeconomic stability, whilst also keeping its public debt at a low level (close to 30 percent of GDP). Moldova experienced a banking crisis in 2014, driven by massive bank fraud – the size of the embezzled assets amounted to 12 percent of the country’s GDP. Their remittances have been crucial in keeping the country afloat and driving its economic growth. According to some estimates, such migrant workers constitute about 25 percent of the country’s entire labor force. Moldova’s growth model is peculiar, since it is largely based on consumption funded by remittances of migrant workers (in accounting terms, Moldova’s consumption is actually higher than its entire GDP).

The war has only deepened that crisis – disrupting the economy of the whole region and forcing thousands of Ukrainian refugees to flee to Moldova.ĭespite being one of the poorest countries in Europe, Moldova has been able to grow steadily for many years, with annual GDP growth averaging 4.4% since 2000. Instead, it offered a three-fold price increase to the country, provoking a gas crisis that has been ongoing ever since. Gazprom refused to roll-over (as it had traditionally done in the past) the existing 30-year gas contract with Moldova. And immediately, the new government became the target of Russia’s energy blackmail. PAS formed a new government headed by Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilița. Then, in 2021 her Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) won a landslide victory in the parliamentary elections, obtaining a 63-seat majority in the parliament of 101 seats. President Maia Sandu, a prominent reformist politician, took power at the end of 2020 from the hands of pro-Russian Igor Dodon. The on-going war has exacerbated the tough situation faced by pro-European Union authorities of the country. Were Ukraine to fall, chances are high that Moldova would be next on the list of Russian targets. Moldova had once already become a victim of Russian hybrid aggression in the early 1990s, which resulted in the creation of an unrecognized rump statelet of Transnistria.

24, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Russian missile strikes on Ukrainian territory close to the Moldovan border were heard by people across the country on Feb. Yet the Russian-Ukrainian war, the largest in Europe since World War II, casts its long shadow over neighboring Moldova. Though subtle, the contrast with the streets of Ukrainian towns and cities, even those far from the frontlines, is obvious. People look relaxed and appear to be enjoying their lives. The streets of Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, are sunny and peaceful.
