Data from the State Statistical Office, according to which Macedonia ended 2009 with slight GDP decline by 0.7 percents and increase of economic activity in the last quarter of 2009 by 1.2 percents, show that the country has officially exited recession, Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Zoran Stavreski said.
 
-Such performance, if combined with unemployment reduction show that Macedonia has managed to completely weather the crisis, experiencing least possible consequences. Third best economic performance in Europe, measured according to GDP was achieved and negative consequences on the labour market were prevented, Stavreski underlined at the press conference held in the Government also attended by the economic team of ministers.
 
According to him, this speaks in favour of the economic policies set before the crisis and the packages of anti-crisis measures implemented in 2009, underpinning Macedonian economy to overcome the crisis, experiencing least possible consequences. Among the measures, contributing the most, Stavreski pointed out the re-scheduling of the debt of enterprises at the end of 2008, reduction of social contribution rates and abolishment of profit tax on reinvestments, possibility to use favourable credits from the European Investment Bank and anti-recession character of the Budget, as well as increased investments in the field of infrastructure and construction.
 
-We are convinced that performance in 2009 is very close to Government’s projections of 0.6 percents of GDP decline in relation to the achieved 0.7 percents. We believe that this strongly speaks in favour of the credibility of projections and polices of the Government for the coming period, when we expect for the Macedonian economy to realize positive growth rate of 2 percentage this year, Stavreski said, pointing out that high growth rates of 4 or more percentage would be also realized in 2012.(MIA)
