Business and Economy Review, no. 12

GDP in the first quarter of the year grew 6.2 percent, while in the first hafl of the year 2006, we estimate a 3-4 percent growht. The evolution of the economy has been driven mainly by the 6.2 percent reduction in the manufacture output and a sluggish 1.8 growth in agricultural production. Services have therefore remained the key engine of economic growth in Moldova. Contrasting the economic woes of the production sector, the consumers' confidence does not seem to have suffered dramatically in 2006. This fact suggests that the consumption is still determined by factors having little connection to the real economy (migration, subsistence agriculture, administrative increase in the budgetary wages).