Moldova plans to significantly expand the scope of small and medium-sized businesses. The government has approved a bill under which a company will be able to retain its SME status with an annual turnover of up to 50 million euros, instead of the current 25 million euros, and the asset value limit will increase from 21.5 million to 43 million euros. Formally, this is about aligning Moldovan legislation with European Union regulations. But the economic significance of the changes is broader: companies that are quite large by Moldovan standards will be able to remain in the SME category and qualify for the financing and support instruments intended for that category.
The sheer size of the sector explains why this change is significant for virtually the entire economy. According to the latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2025 there were 74,360 small and medium-sized enterprises in Moldova out of 74,590 active enterprises that submitted financial statements. SMEs accounted for 99.7% of all enterprises, while large businesses accounted for only 0.3%.
SMEs employed 393,000 people—71.6% of all those employed by enterprises in the country. Their sales revenue reached 563.3 billion lei, or 73.4% of the economy's total enterprise sales. At the same time, the typical Moldovan SME remains small. On average, in 2025, each enterprise had about 5.3 employees and 7.6 million lei in sales revenue.
The sector's structure also highlights its specific characteristics. The largest group of SMEs is concentrated in trade—30.7% of all enterprises. Another 10% operate in professional, scientific, and technical activities; 8.7% are in agriculture, forestry, and fishing; and 7.4% are in manufacturing. Moreover, trade alone accounts for 44.9% of all sales revenue in the SME sector.
Against this backdrop, the new upper limit seems unusual. A turnover of 50 million euros is approximately 1 billion lei. For Moldova, it is difficult to view a business of this scale as a typical small or medium-sized enterprise, given that the average company in the sector sells goods and services worth only 7.6 million lei per year. The difference is more than 130-fold.
However, the European classification is based not on the size of a specific country's economy, but on uniform criteria for the single market. The European definition of an SME requires fewer than 250 employees and an annual turnover of no more than 50 million euros or total assets of no more than 43 million euros. Until now, Moldova's financial thresholds were half that amount: 25 million and 21.5 million euros, respectively.
The practical significance of this change applies primarily to growing companies. A company could exceed the Moldovan financial threshold and lose its SME status, even though, according to European criteria, it would still be considered a medium-sized business. Once the law is amended, this discrepancy will disappear.
Herewith, the pool of potential recipients of government guarantees, financing and development programs—and, in the long term, relevant European instruments—will expand. The bill also provides for the possibility of guaranteeing bonds issued by SMEs, creating an additional mechanism for raising capital.
However, there is a significant caveat here. The number of 74,400 SMEs and their share of 99.7% of all enterprises will not automatically change after the law is enacted. Starting in 2025, to ensure comparability with European statistics, the National Bureau of Statistics will classify enterprises as SMEs based solely on the number of employees: microenterprises—up to 9 employees; small enterprises—10 to 49 employees; and medium-sized enterprises—50 to 249 employees. Financial indicators are no longer used in compiling these statistics.
Therefore, raising the revenue threshold to 50 million euros will primarily affect the legal scope of companies eligible for support measures, rather than the statistical size of the sector.
In addition, when determining status, not only will the indicators of an individual legal entity be taken into account, but also its ties to other enterprises—through ownership and control. This should prevent situations where a large business is formally split among several companies and thereby receives benefits intended for SMEs.
Another significant change extends beyond the SME category. Moldovan legislation is introducing a new European category—"small mid-caps"—which refers to medium-sized companies that have outgrown the SME category but are still significantly smaller than large corporations.
The European Commission introduced a uniform definition for this category in 2025: fewer than 750 employees, annual revenue of up to 150 million euros, or total assets of up to 129 million euros. The idea is that once a company exceeds the SME threshold, it should not immediately move from a category of businesses with special regimes and support instruments into the same group as the largest corporations.
Thus, the new scale significantly increases the scope for companies to grow. The upper limit for SMEs is raised to 249 employees and €50 million in revenue, while the next category—small mid-cap—is set at up to 749 employees and €150 million.
However, the new status alone does not provide businesses with funding. Raising the thresholds merely expands the number of companies that will be eligible for the relevant support instruments. Whether they receive guarantees, cheaper financing, European funds, or access to capital markets will depend on the specific programs and their terms.
Today, a growing Moldovan company may become too large for national support programs while remaining small according to European standards. The new classification bridges this gap. However, the real impact will only materialize if, following the European definitions, comparable financing and support instruments are introduced in Moldova. Otherwise, it will primarily be the boundaries of the categories that change, rather than the opportunities available to the businesses themselves. // 02.10.2026 – InfoMarket.