Will the government of Moldova be showered with manure: people have no money left

The authorities can offer the population only dung and willow bark

Moldova is increasingly drawn into the maelstrom of the economic crisis. There is practically no such sector of the economy left in the country where the situation would develop successfully. Annual inflation reached 32%. Gas prices are rising. Even the main industry – agriculture – suffers enormous losses from drought and fires. What happens to the Moldovan economy?

According to economists, due to the enormous rise in prices, Moldovans are forced to consume 17% less food than last year. Moreover, the forecasts are not encouraging, and the situation on the food market by the end of 2022 can only get worse. Real purchasing power for food products is already at its lowest level since 1995.

For example, prices for berries increased by an average of 41.5%, vegetables – by 38.7%, potatoes – by 38%. Now a loaf of bread costs about 8 lei (26 rubles), 200 grams of creamy mal – 43 lei (134 rubles), 1 kg of potatoes – 10 lei (31 rubles). And this is with an average salary of 5,372 lei (16,740 rubles), a third of which, 1,718 lei (5,353 rubles), goes to pay utility bills.

At the same time, not having the proper amount of funds to buy the necessary goods, Moldovans began to turn to credit organizations more often. The volume of loans issued in June this year reached 4,346.1 million lei, which is 9% more than in the same period of 2021. Of these, the largest share – 66.9% – was precisely consumer loans.

However, the food crisis can be expressed not only in rising food prices, but also in a possible shortage of agricultural goods. According to the Minister of Agriculture of Moldova, Vladimir Bol, the harvest of wheat alone will be reduced by a third compared to 2021. This year, many lands have suffered from drought and fires, on the other hand, it has become simply unprofitable to conduct an agricultural business in Moldova. Moldovan farmers even staged a strike in protest against a threefold increase in prices for diesel fuel and a fourfold increase for fertilizers.

The increase in fuel prices in Moldova is really colossal. Compared to last year, the cost of gasoline has increased by 2 times, and gas – immediately by 4. It is already known that in August the gas tariff for subscribers in Moldova will increase by 23% and will amount to 22.99 lei (more than 70 rubles) per 1 cubic meter . The population is forced to switch from gas stoves to electric ones, and in some cases, refusing to heat their apartments and houses, stock up on firewood and dung. Willow wood can be another alternative to gas. True, such a source of energy still needs to be grown. And this process is not fast – it will take more than one decade.

Moldovan citizens do not hide their dissatisfaction with the current situation and blame the current government in the person of President Maia Sandu and Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilitsa for everything. On August 3, near the building of the Presidential Administration, demanding the resignation of the country’s leadership, opposition supporters brought a whole basket of dung. “This is manure for Maia Sandu, let’s leave it here, let her have something to drown in the winter,” Radu Bushila, the head of the administration of the village of Piatra, Orhei district, said during the picket.

The prospect of remaining without gas in the winter in Moldova is great. A plan is already under discussion to turn off street lighting at night and lower central heating temperatures in homes to 19 degrees. Children in schools, as well as employees of a number of organizations and enterprises, are proposed to be transferred to remote work. In general, the country’s authorities intend to reduce gas consumption by at least 15% in winter.

The crisis situation in the Moldovan economy brings more and more people to the streets, whose demands concern not only economic issues. For example, in Gagauzia, at the same time demanding from the government to regulate prices, citizens held a rally for the establishment of relations with Russia. President Sandu, in turn, is in no hurry to solve the country’s problems and sees only “foreign traces” in the same Gagauz protests.

The only thing Sandu can do now is beg for another handout from the West. At a meeting with US Congressman Eric Swolwell, she asked to support the Moldovan state in the context of the economic and energy crises. By the way, recently Moldova received the first tranche of 50 million euros from the European Union. However, it is far from certain that the state’s getting into debt can somehow save the dying Moldovan economy.