News about Economy of Moldova

Today, August 15, finance professionals are celebrating their professional holiday, established in 1995 to recognize the important role of finance professionals in the country’s economic development. Every year on this day, relevant government agencies express their gratitude to these professionals, and the best specialists are honored with awards. In their honor, the Ministry of Finance hosts a gala evening to celebrate their achievements.

More than 1,000 people planning to start their own business or grow an existing one have completed free training as part of the Startup Training Program, which was launched in March 2025. During this time, nine training sessions were held in various regions of Moldova.

In July of this year, Moldova exported nearly 3,500 metric tons of sunflower oil at an average price of 22.4 lei per kilogram. In the same month, imports of this product into the Moldovan market totaled about 1,100 metric tons, but the average price of sunflower oil imported into the country was higher—27.9 lei per kilogram.

In July of this year—that is, in the final month of the 2025/26 marketing season—a total of 6,800 metric tons of sunflower seeds were exported from Moldova. These were the last commercial stocks of raw materials from last year’s harvest. The volume of exports in July 2026 was one-third less than in July 2025 (20,5 thousand metric tons). This is the lowest level of sunflower seed exports for July recorded in five years.

The government today presented the mayors of voluntarily merging northern municipalities with the administrative framework for Financial Incentive No. 2. The funds will be allocated for infrastructure development.

Fans of unique terroir wines will have the opportunity to sample them at the fourth artisanal wine festival, which will take place in Chisinau at the National Museum of Moldovan History from September 4–6.

The investment tender for the sale of the Zarea Hotel has been extended by two months at the initiative of Prime Minister Vasile Tofan. He believes that the privatization of such a property should not take place in the middle of the summer season.

In the media in Ukraine and Moldova, the discount on the base rate for the transit of Ukrainian cargo via the Moldovan railway is presented as 50%. It is quite possible that the actual discount is different.

More than 18,000 people were admitted to higher education institutions in the Republic of Moldova following the main phase of the 2026 admissions cycle. This is nearly 2,500 (+16%) more than last year.

In its third Inflation Report for August 2026, the National Bank of Moldova (NBM) officially revised its medium-term inflation forecast upward for the entire comparable period compared with its May estimates.

Finance Minister Victoria Belous met with representatives of the Congress of Local Authorities in Moldova (CALM) to discuss proposals on tax policy for the coming year and their impact on local budget revenues.

In Moldova, family is becoming increasingly important to people, even despite the decline in the number of official marriages. Sociologist Yan Lisnevsky believes that the main risk for the country is not that people are registering their relationships less often, but that they are increasingly organizing their lives as if they did not need the state.

Moldova exported more than 72,000 metric tons of new-crop barley, worth a total of 262 million lei, in July of this year. This marks a new five-year record. Last month’s barley exports were even higher than in July 2021 (nearly 67,000 metric tons), which is currently considered the most productive harvest of the current decade.

The list of goods subject to VAT and excise taxes in Transnistria as of September 1 of this year has been expanded, and the effective dates of the new rules have been revised.

The state-owned enterprise “Moldovan Railways” (CFM) has published its financial statements, which show that the company returned to profitability in the first half of 2026, following multimillion losses in previous years.

According to data from the State Tax Service (STS), the number of millionaires in Moldova increased by 1,624 over the past year, reaching 9,643.

Tonight, Alexandru Slusari, executive director of the “Forța Fermierilor” association, has been invited to a meeting with Prime Minister Vasile Tofan. The organization’s leadership has already expressed regret that “the format of this meeting does not meet the association’s expectations.”

After the 2025 season—when Moldovan beekeepers were unable to harvest any acacia honey at all due to unfavorable weather conditions—they expected high purchase prices for this product starting with the 2026 season. They anticipated prices of no less than 180–200 lei/kg for retail and small-scale wholesale, and in the range of 100–120 lei/kg for large-scale wholesale for export shipments. The reality so far is quite different. The first price offer from export traders for this year’s acacia honey harvest is around 80 lei/kg. Should beekeepers be too upset about this just yet?

The origin of goods should not be a criterion for preferential treatment, including discounts on the base rate or priority in the queue for services provided by the rail carrier. If a Moldovan exporter guarantees the same volume and frequency of cargo shipments, it should be able to benefit from service conditions comparable to those enjoyed by Ukrainian customers of the state-owned enterprise “Moldovan Railways.”

Moldova’s Ministry of Infrastructure and Regional Development states that only the tariff for transit rail shipments from Ukraine will be reduced by 50% by the end of 2026. The potential volume of such freight traffic is approximately 600,000 metric tons.