CHISINAU (Moldova), December 1 (SeeNews) – Moldova’s economy would switch to 0.5% growth next year from a 9.0% contraction projected for 2009, the country’s Finance Ministry said late on Monday.
End-year inflation will speed up to 5.0% next year from 0.5% forecast for the current year, the ministry said in the country's 2010 budget draft which it submitted to the government for approval.
The ministry also expects the deicit in the state budget to fall to 4.14 billion lei ($373 million/247.4 million euro) next year from the 4.65 billion lei gap projected for the current year. Budget revenue is seen at 15.19 billion lei in 2010, up from 13.1 billion lei projected for this year. Spending would grow to 19.33 billion lei from 17.75 billion lei forecast for 2009.
The ministry also said it will finance the budget deficit next year with sales of Treasury bills, privatisation proceeds and external financing.
The draft envisages procceds of 350 million lei from the sale of state-owned assets in 2010, up from the 100 million lei in privatisation revenue planned for the current year.Two hundred million lei will come from Treasury bills auctions and a further 3.06 billion lei will come from external financing in 2010.
Some 917.2 million lei in budget spending would be allocated for payments on Moldova's foreign debt next year, up from 776.9 million lei planned for the current year, the ministry said.
Moldova's budget deficit reached 1.963 billion lei in the first nine months of 2009, the latest data from the Finance Ministry showed.
Earlier this month the country’s government raised the budget gap forecast for this year to 4.65 billion lei from 573.8 million lei and reversed its previous forecast of a real 6.0% economic growth to a 9.0% drop. It also lowered its end-year inflation forecast to 0.5% from 9.5% projected earlier.
Moldova’s economy contracted by a real 7.8% in the first half of 2009. The country swung to a 1.5% monthly inflation in October after a 0.6% monthly deflation in September. Year-on-year, the country's consumer price index (CPI) was down 1.6% in October compared to a 2.3% fall in September.
(1 euro=16.7314 Moldovan lei)