The Impact of Municipal Bond Issues in the Republic of Moldova
Capital market and local investment
Automatically translated summary. The full text is available in Romanian.
A new study by the Independent Think Tank “Expert-Grup”, supported by the Kingdom of the Netherlands, assesses five years of municipal bonds in the Republic of Moldova. Since the first issues in 2021, local authorities have placed nine issues worth MDL 112 million, moving the instrument from pilot project to repeated use.
Between August 2021 and September 2026, seven issuers placed nine issues, all fully subscribed. Repeat issuance and wider issuer types show growing acceptance, but the investor base is narrow: about 280 subscriptions, mostly from individuals, and almost no secondary market. Municipal bonds reopened the bond segment, yet account for only 0.1% of securities at the Central Securities Depository.
The sums equal about 0.4% of local investment spending, but 18–43% of annual investment expenditure for small issuers. Fixed coupons rose from 6.5–6.7% in 2021 to 9.5–10% in 2026, while floating rates shifted rate risk to issuers. All issues relied on external technical assistance. The study recommends improving the regulatory framework, standardising documents, strengthening institutional capacity, expanding financial education and the investor base, and enabling a functioning secondary market.
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