port all of its supplies of oil, coal, and
natural gas, largely from Russia. Energy shortages contributed to
sharp production declines after the breakup of the Soviet Union in
1991. The Moldovan Government has recently been making progress on an
ambitious economic reform agenda. As part of its reform efforts,
Moldova introduced a stable convertible currency, freed all prices,
stopped issuing preferential credits to state enterprises and backed
steady land privatization, removed export controls, and freed interest
rates. The IMF has suspended payment on Moldova's Extended Fund
Facility since November 1997, due to concerns about the budget deficit
and money supply growth. In late December Parliament agreed to a lower
1998 budget deficit to address IMF and World Bank concerns.

GDP: purchasing power parity-$10.8 billion (1997 est.)

GDP-real growth rate: -2% (1997 est.)

GDP-per capita: purchasing power parity-$2,400 (1997 est.)

GDP-composition by sector:
agriculture: 42%
industry: 36%
services: 22% (1995)

Inflation rate-consumer price index: 11.2% (1997 est.)

Labor force:
total: 2.42 million (1995)
by occupation: agriculture 46.1%, industry 13.9%, other 40.0% (1996)

Unemployment rate: 1.4% (includes only officially registered
unemployed; large numbers of underemployed workers) (March 1997)

Budget:
revenues: $570 million
expenditures: $641 million, including capital expenditures of $28
million (1997 est.)

Industries: food processing, agricultural machinery, foundry
equipment, refrigerators and freezers, washing machines, hosiery,
sugar, vegetable oil, shoes, textiles

Industrial production growth rate: -2% (1997 est.)

Electricity-capacity: 2.906 million kW (1997)

Electricity-production: 1.5 billion kWh (1997)

Electricity-consumption per capita: 324 kWh (1996 est.)

Agriculture-products: vegetables, fruits, wine, grain, sugar beets,
sunflower seed, tobacco; meat, milk

Exports:
total value: $816 million (1997)
commodities: foodstuffs, wine, tobacco, textiles and footwear,
machinery
partners: Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Romania, Germany

Imports:
total value: $1.16 billion (1997)
commodities: oil, gas, coal, steel, machinery, foodstuffs,
automobiles, and other consumer durables
partners: Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Romania, Germany

Debt-external: more than $1 billion (1997)

Economic aid:
recipient: IMF and World Bank, $512 million (1992-97)

Currency: the Moldovan leu (MLD) (plur