OREANDA-NEWS. September 19, 2011. Most sectors of the Moldovan economy have recovered after the financial crisis. Thus, in the first quarters of 2011 compared with 2008, significant rises were recorded in exports, which hiked by 36.7 per cent, domestic trade, that increased by 23.9 per cent, the nominal salary went up by 33 per cent, the real wages by 15.4 per cent, and the agricultural production by 18.8 per cent, Economics Minister Valeriu Lazar told a news conference.

Lazar noted that in the first quarter of 2011, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) recorded a 7.5-per-cent growth against the same period of the year before. In the first six months of 2010 GDP saw a 5.6-per-cent increase. In 2011 it went up by 4.6 per cent against the same period of 2008. Yet, in 2009 the Gross Domestic Product fell by 7.8 per cent, Lazar said. "We can ascertain that the national economy has completed its recovery after the 2009 crisis and has entered a post-crisis growth. At the same time, the economic growth started to be felt in the evolution of the labour payment and in the unemployment rate," the deputy prime minister concluded.

Referring to figures recorded in the first quarter of 2011 compared with the same period of 2010, Lazar said that the exports had soared, in real terms, by 64.9 per cent, while the imports by 41.7 per cent. The exports covered imports by 42.1 per cent, against the previously recorded figure of 36.2 per cent.

The deputy prime minister said that the industrial output increased by 9.1 per cent in the first quarter of the year, against the same period of the year before, reaching 14.4 billion lei. "This evolution was possible due to the growth recorded in the extractive and processing industries, the latter accounting for 70 per cent of the industrial sector," Lazar said.

As for the long-term investments in material assets, the deputy prime minister said that they had increased by 31.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2011, with the investments' flow reaching 4.8 billion dollars. The share of direct foreign investments stands near 3 billion dollars. This points to a greater confidence on behalf of business people towards the business development prospects, Lazar said.

People's living standards are improving as well. In 2010, the poverty level in Moldova recorded decreasing trends. The quota of poor people stood at 21.9 per cent, by 4.4 per cent less than in 2009. There are about 735,000 less well-off people in Moldova, of whom 588,000 live in rural areas. The level of extreme poverty stands at 1.4 per cent, decreasing by 0.7 per cent.

Among the macro-economic forecasts for 2012-2014, the minister mentioned: the active promotion of Moldovan exports, the development and support of private companies, the continuation of structural reforms, the development of the economy's real sector, including by attracting direct foreign investments, the promotion of a cautious fiscal policy and the implementation of reforms meant to cut the inefficient public spending.