OREANDA-NEWS. October 01, 2013. The Economics Ministry improved the economic growth forecast to 5.5 percent in 2013 from 4.0 percent, as previously expected, said Economics Minister Valeriu Lazar at a news conference.

"We still continue the estimations for the next year. What I am happy with and looked forward to is the vision of the IMF colleagues, as they are more objective ex officio than we are, have a more objective and comprehensive view, this is an increase that I call organic", said the minister. He stressed that organic means that the growth had not been gained at the expense of only one element, practically all the structure elements of the economic evolution are on the rise”.

"We see growth in the industry, we have a dynamic investment process, export growth, in the services sector, and this makes us confident that by the end of the year, we will have the result we expect," said Valeriu Lazar.

It is "quite a robust growth and, for the next year, there are all the premises that all economic sectors will maintain an accelerated growth rate". "What are we concerned about now is to identify and enforce, within the budgetary and fiscal policy for the next year, the additional elements needed to foster the investment process and further remove the obstacles to the international trade, especially in terms of exports ", said Deputy Prime Minister Lazar.

The Moldovan economy increased 6.1 percent in the second quarter, well above expectations of experts and authorities, who although anticipated an economic recovery, but a more moderate one, after a 0.8-per cent contraction in 2012. The National Bureau of Statistics also informs that, in January-June 2013, the Gross Domestic Product had a nominal value of 43.376 billion lei at current market prices, up by 4.9 per cent against the same period last year.

Moldova had one of the biggest growths in Europe in the first half of 2013, said the head of the IMF mission, Max Alier, on a post-program monitoring visit to Chisinau. The same optimistic feedback was given by World Bank experts.

Nevertheless, official statistics denies expectations with regard to the "engine" of economic recovery in 2013. Even though the assets field has pushed up the economy, it was not agriculture that played a key role, as it was believed, but the gross value added in the extractive and processing industries, with an advance of 13 and 13.4%. The value added in agriculture, in which much hope is put, increased by 3.8%. The net taxes on products increased by 6.7 per cent. Yet, economists said the results of the work in agriculture and processing industry would be felt in the third and fourth quarters, after a relatively good season for farmers.