Moldavian prices – a Sticker Shock

Chrissy and Marc are currently volunteering at Peace Corps which sent them to the little known Eastern European country of Moldova. During their time in Moldova, they experienced every possible emotion and a variety of successes and failures. In this post, they are talking about the prices in Moldova.

"Prices have gone up in Moldova. Of course, that’s normal; over a span of more than two years, prices have gone up just about everywhere. But because of our previous experience here, it has been particularly noticeable. For example, the least expensive pizza at our favorite (or at least closest) pizza place in Cahul cost 19 Moldova lei in 2005. Today, it costs 32 lei, an increase of over 65 percent. Similar price increases, especially for food, can be seen everywhere. Chrissy and I can no longer get lunch in Chisinau for under $12, whereas in the past that would have been extravagant. McDonalds is now a cheap meal, comparatively speaking (we haven’t been and aren’t planning on going there). At one of the nicer restaurants in Chisinau, dinner for two with wine set us back $55! Three years ago I didn’t even know of any restaurants that expensive. When you combine the relatively small a la carte portions with high prices, it seems outrageous.

With a weaker dollar, everything seems more expensive. During our Peace Corps service, the dollar generally hovered at a value around 12 lei, with a high close to 14 lei. Today it is exactly 10 lei. Moldova is actively trying to curb inflation, so the Moldovan Leu has been getting stronger also.

But what if you remove the dollar perspective? What about the people who live here and earn their salaries in lei? Life is getting much harder for them. Salaries aren’t changing while costs are going up. Gasoline is more expensive, even more than in the States, which means traveling within Moldova is more expensive. Food is particularly bad. Rice has gone from 8 lei/kg to over 30 lei/kg. Fortunately, it is not a staple part of the diet here. Pork, on the other hand, is the staple meat. High quality pork now costs 140 lei per kilo, while low quality meat costs around 80 lei per kilo. Now imagine that you have a family of four, and a household income of 1400 lei, which would actually be considered a pretty decent salary. A full 10 percent of your income would go to ONE kilogram of meat, hardly enough to get you through a week. Add on your other costs – rent, transportation, clothing, and more food – and you can begin to picture how tough life is for average Moldovans."

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