January 10 (SeeNews) - Moldova ended 2022 with a budget gap of 8.7 billion lei ($460 million/432 million euro), much lower compared to earlier estimates, the finance ministry said.
Budget revenues rose 19.8% year-on-year to 59.2 billion lei in 2022, whereas spending increased by 25.5% to 67.9 billion lei, the finance ministry said in a statement on Monday. It did not say what the deficit was relative to estimated gross domestic product.
The finance ministry expected a deficit of some 15.3 billion lei, with 81 billion lei in revenues and 96.2 billion lei in expenditures, according to previous estimates posted on its website.
In the first nine months of 2022, Moldova's gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by an annual 4.1% to 197.8 billion lei, the latest data from the statistical office showed. In the third quarter alone, GDP fell by an annual 10.3% due to poor performance of agricultural, retail and real estate sectors.
In August, Moldova's government revised its 2022 economic growth forecast to zero from 0.3% to reflect the economic spill-over effects of the war on Ukraine and the strong rise in energy prices. In October, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that it expects Moldova's GDP to stagnate in 2022, revising downwards its April forecast for 2% growth. In December, Moldova's parliament adopted on final reading the 2023 budget bill targeting economic growth of 2% and a deficit equivalent to around 6% of GDP.
(1 euro= 20.1605 lei)