Moldova Import Data: $8.67B in 2023, Down 5.9%

Imports Pulled Back After a 2022 Peak

Moldova imported $8.67 billion worth of goods in 2023, down 5.9% from $9.22 billion in 2022. That 2022 total was the high point of the past five years, and the pullback that followed left the total more than double what Moldova exported over the same year, covered in the companion export data for this country.

Imports stood at $5.84 billion in 2019, then fell to $5.42 billion in 2020 as the pandemic disrupted global trade. Recovery followed quickly. The total climbed to $7.18 billion in 2021 and jumped further to $9.22 billion in 2022, before easing back to $8.67 billion in 2023. That gap between imports and exports, roughly double in most years of this dataset, is typical of a small, developing economy still building out its own manufacturing and energy base rather than producing most of what it consumes. Running a persistent trade deficit of this size is not automatically a sign of trouble. Many fast-growing smaller economies import more than they export for years at a stretch while investment and infrastructure catch up, financed by remittances, foreign investment or external borrowing rather than export earnings alone.

Romania and Ukraine Together Supply More Than a Quarter of Moldova's Imports

Romania supplied 15.0% of Moldova's imports in 2023, worth $1.30 billion, the largest single partner. Ukraine followed closely at 12.4% ($1.08 billion), a notable figure given the war that has affected Ukraine since 2022. China ranked third at 11.7% ($1.02 billion). Together, those three suppliers made up 39.1% of total import value.

Turkey added 8.5% ($740.85 million), and Germany contributed 7.1% ($617.88 million). Italy added 5.4% ($470.28 million), and the Russia contributed 3.7% ($321.64 million), a figure that, like Ukraine's position above it, shows established regional trade continuing despite the broader geopolitical rupture between Moldova's two largest eastern neighbors. Poland added a nearly identical 3.7% ($317.00 million), and France contributed 2.5% ($216.90 million). India closed out the top ten at 2.4% ($209.73 million).

Ukraine's continued presence near the top of this list, even as the country fights a full-scale war, illustrates something worth remembering about trade statistics generally. Established supply routes for goods people actually need day to day, food, fuel, basic manufactured products, often persist through political and military upheaval far more than headlines about severed relations would suggest.

Fuel and Components Top an Import List That Feeds Moldova's Own Export Industries

Mineral fuels led every import category in 2023, worth $1.96 billion, or 22.6% of the total, consistent with a country that produces no oil or gas of its own. Electrical machinery followed at 10.1% ($876.35 million), the same category that also tops Moldova's export list, covered in the companion export data for this country, where automotive wiring harness production anchors a large share of the total. Much of what shows up here as an import likely represents raw wire, connectors and components entering the country before being assembled into finished harnesses and shipped back out.

Vehicles added 7.7% ($669.67 million), and machinery and mechanical appliances contributed 7.1% ($618.00 million). Plastics added 4.1% ($352.17 million), and pharmaceutical products contributed 3.5% ($300.18 million). Wood and articles of wood added 1.7% ($147.22 million), and iron and steel articles contributed 1.6% ($140.55 million). Optical and measuring instruments added a nearly identical 1.6% ($134.91 million), and fertilizers closed out the top ten at 1.5% ($134.28 million), an input tied directly to the cereal and sunflower farming that features prominently in Moldova's own export categories.

Taken together, Moldova's 2023 import data describes a small economy buying the energy, components and industrial inputs it cannot produce on its own. Those goods are sourced overwhelmingly from its immediate European and regional neighbors, with trade routes to both Ukraine and Russia persisting even through a period of open conflict between them. Read alongside the export data for the same country, the picture that emerges is of an economy still building out its own capacity. It imports far more than it sells abroad, while gradually developing manufacturing niches, automotive components and wine chief among them, that let it compete on the export side too. That combination, heavy dependence on imports paired with a handful of genuinely competitive export niches, is common among smaller economies still working through the middle stretch of a longer industrial transition.