FOREWORD

External trade represents a significant part of the external activity of any country and it is a relevant indicator for determining its level of development. It has the role to contribute to the establishment of political and economic relations mutually advantageous for the partner countries. In the same time, all the countries tend to protect the interests of national economy on external and internal markets. That is why, all over the world the external trade activity has a great importance, being a state object of regulation, process, impossible to be organized without reliable and opportune information on the results of external trade.

The publications on external trade with goods occupy a special place in the system of statistical publications due to the major interest of the users – economic units, survey units, scholars, and other users from the country and from abroad, for the data on import and export, in the context of transit to market economy.

The current issue, which content is structured in 195 tables with a high informational capacity, present statistical time series of synthesis on export, import, trade balance in total, by continents, by countries, by groups of countries, by groups of commodities according the Nomenclature of Goods, the Standard International Trade Classification, the Broad Economic Categories and also by countries – groups of commodities.

The publication contains also the value indices in total and for groups of countries, the annual variation by countries, by groups of countries and by groups of commodities, unit value indices and the volume indices for imported-exported goods in total, by groups of countries and by groups of commodities, structure of imports and exports in total, by countries, by groups of countries and by groups of commodities. 

In order to insure the accessibility and the correct interpretation of the published data, in the current issue, there have been included also methodological notes on the content of the indicators and the way of their assessment, the information concerning the sources used.

Hoping that the statistical publication ”External Trade of the Republic of Moldova in 2001-2009” will meet the highest exigencies, I express our gratitude to the Custom Service, for the data made available, which contributed to the development of this work.