: 41% (1997)

Population below poverty line: NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 2.7%
highest 10%: 25.8% (1992)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 18.3% (1998 est.)

Labor force: 1.7 million (1998)

Labor force--by occupation: agriculture 40.2%, industry 14.3%,
other 45.5% (1998)

Unemployment rate: 2% (includes only officially registered
unemployed; large numbers of underemployed workers) (September 1998)

Budget:
revenues: $536 million
expenditures: $594 million, including capital expenditures of $NA
(1998 est.)

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

Industrial production growth rate: -5% (1998 est.)

Electricity--production: 8.325 billion kWh (1996)

Electricity--production by source:
fossil fuel: 96.1%
hydro: 3.9%
nuclear: 0%
other: 0% (1996)

Electricity--consumption: 6.825 billion kWh (1996)

Electricity--exports: 3.1 billion kWh (1996)

Electricity--imports: 1.6 billion kWh (1996)

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

Exports: $633 million (f.o.b., 1998)

Exports--commodities: foodstuffs, wine, tobacco, textiles and
footwear, machinery

Exports--partners: Russia 58%, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Belarus,
Romania, US, Germany, Italy (1997)

Imports: $1.02 billion (f.o.b., 1998)

Imports--commodities: oil, gas, coal, steel, machinery, chemical
products, metals, metal products, foodstuffs, automobiles, other
consumer durables

Imports--partners: Russia 26%, Ukraine 20%, Belarus, Romania,
Germany, Italy (1997)

Debt--external: more than $1.2 billion (February 1999)

Economic aid--recipient: $100.8 million (1995); note?$547 million
from the IMF and World Bank (1992-99)

Currency: the Moldovan leu (MLD) (plural lei) was introduced in
late 1993

Exchange rates: lei (MLD) per US$1 (end of period)--8.3226
(December 1998), 8.3395 (1998), 4.6605 (1997), 4.6500 (1996), 4.4990
(1995), 4.2700 (1994); period average--4.6758 (January 1998), 4.6236
(1997), 4.6045 (1996), 4.4958 (1995)

Fiscal year: calendar year

Communications

Telephones: 600,000 (1998 est.)

Telephone system: the Ministry of Information, Computers, and
Telecommunications controls telecommunications; the carrier is
Modtelecom
domestic