However, imports of services grew at a higher rate. According to the National Bank of Moldova, the surplus of foreign trade in services in the first quarter of 2025 amounted to $200.20 million and decreased by 4.8% over the year. The reason is the outstripping growth of imports of services (+$67.66 million or 18.9%), which exceeded the growth of exports (+$57.51 million).
“This growth in exports of services did not help improve the current account. It happened because, firstly, imports grew even more. And, secondly, only one item in the export of services – exports of IT services – is growing seriously, and its growth rate is slowing down. If in 2020-2023 the average annual growth rate of IT services exports amounted to 30%, in 2024 the growth rate has already decreased to 13%. This is, of course, the effect of the growing base, but also the effect of the slowdown in demand from customers, as well as the exhaustion of human resources,” says Marina Solovieva from Expert Group.
The contribution of IT services exports in the first quarter of 2025 is estimated at $181.61 million (+19.6%), or 29% of the total. It is followed by the export of tourist services, which increased by 7.5% to $162.59 mln. The export of education services has another rather high growth rate – 29% – thanks to foreign students.
The rest of the services significant from the point of view of export are going down – transportation (-6% compared to the first quarter of 2024), especially passenger transportation (-17%), processing of toll raw materials (-5%), professional and consulting services (-2%). And imports of services are growing (+19%). As a result, the surplus ($900 mln) of foreign trade in services decreased by 5%.
Experts hope that Moldova will be able to increase exports of services this year at the expense of medical tourism and processing of raw materials, thus overcoming the symbolic boundary of $3 billion.
