Chisinau, 21 October /MOLDPRES/ - Moldova has got out of the 2010 economic crisis after one year of severe economic recession, according to data made public by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). At a today's news conference, IMF Resident Representative in Chisinau Tokhir Mirzoev said that Moldova may improve its economic situation by increasing exports and continuing structural reforms.

Asked to explain how the crisis that started in the United States hit so seriously a country with few financial ties with the West, Tokhir Mirzoev said that "the economies of such countries as Moldova and Ukraine had a too weak immunity to cope with the crisis." Besides, before the crisis, Moldova consumed more than it gathered, and made no reserves," Mirzoev added.

With the National Statistics Bureau (BNS) reporting a 5.6-per-cent economic growth in the first half of 2010, the IMF said Moldova will record a 3.2-per cent increase in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2010 and 3.5 per cent in 2011. Although it was a year of relative political instability, in 2010, the domestic demand registered a 4.9-per-cent increase against a diminution of 17.1 per cent in 2009. The regional average of the domestic demand grew by four per cent in Eastern Europe.

The head of the Chisinau-based IMF office held a news conference after the Fund had made public a report on prospects for the development of the regional economy in Europe. The IMF explained the harshness of the economic crisis in Eastern Europe by the quick increase in domestic consumption due to effervescence of credits which unbalanced the budgets by overheating economies and economic vulnerability.

To support the convalescent economies, the IMF recommended consolidating the national budgets and starting new "locomotives" of growth. For Moldova, these should be exports and structural reforms: improving the business environment and optimizing the public sector.