CHISINAU: Moldova's gross domestic product shrank 0.8 percent to $7.14 billion in 2012 after expanding 6.8 percent in 2011, the National Statistics Bureau said on Monday, as agricultural output and exports to the European Union fell.
Agricultural output fell 23.4 percent in 2012 after Moldova was hit by a drought.
The eastern European nation's exports to the European Union fell 6.4 percent last year while its total exports were down 2.5 percent.
Moldova's economy depends heavily on exports of agricultural products and their derivatives such as wine, as well as transfers from migrant labourers working in Russia and the European Union.
The EU also takes in almost half of the country's exports, making the economy vulnerable to shocks from the troubled euro zone.
Moldova, one of the poorest nations in Europe, wants eventually to join the European Union and is now working on a free trade agreement with the bloc.
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