Washington, 11th October 2014 (MIA) – Both the IMF and the World Bank assessed Macedonian economy as the best in the region with the highest growth this and the next year.
This is encouraging, since it shows that the policies are well set, in particular the policy on attracting foreign investments and using these investments for job creation and increase of export of goods from the Republic of Macedonia to Europe and worldwide. This was stated by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Zoran Stavreski, who participates at the IMF/WB Annual Meetings in Washington, together with the Governor of the National Bank of Macedonia, Dimitar Bogov.
IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings, he underlined, are an excellent opportunity to meet the highest officials of these two institutions, the people who monitor the trends in the economy in Macedonia, so as to see how they perceive our economy and to hear their view on the general developments in the region, Europe and the world, which will be useful to us when preparing the future projections.
– Advice these institutions give to all countries is where there is room – and Macedonia falls into this category – the budget and the budget policy to support capital investments that will create increased economic activity on the short run and will provide for boosted competitiveness of the economy on the long run by constructing roads, as we do in our country with the construction of the three new highways, the railroad track towards Bulgaria, the energy projects and the utilities projects, as well as other infrastructure, Deputy Prime Minister Stavreski said.
The policies we implement in the Republic of Macedonia, he pointed out, are, in general, recommended to all countries, all to the end of generating economic growth, because it is obvious that the development in Europe, according to the assessments, are not the best and the European economy is not in the best shape. At the same time, as Stavreski said, we discuss specific projects on the meetings with the World Bank.
– It is my pleasure to say that the World Bank has recently approved National and Regional Road Rehabilitation Loan to the Republic of Macedonia in the amount of EUR 52 million. It includes the roads from Bitola to Resen, Debar – Boskov Most, etc. As regards the next stage, we expect for the funds to be used to finance other roads as well, such as Kocani – Delcevo, Delcevo – Golak. Additional EUR 105 million has been agreed for ten and so other roads in the Republic of Macedonia, to include the road from Rankovce to Kriva Palanka, and other roads that are of relevance for improvement of the road infrastructure in the country, Deputy Prime Minister Stavreski said.
We bring good news from Washington, Stavreski pointed out, because what we heard is that the Republic of Macedonia addresses well the challenges arising from the developments in Europe and that the country is on the right track with its generated growth rates.
According to Governor Bogov, he and Minister Stavreski participate in exceptionally good discussion panels, having the opportunity to hear the views of the leading economic policy creators in the global financial institutions, as well as the leading countries in the world. The main focus, he underlined, is placed on how to create jobs and generate economic growth worldwide, especially in Europe.
More investments in infrastructure are recommended, thus creating potential for higher economic growth on longer run, at the same time creating the necessary demand in the economies having the room therefore, in order to help the global economy recover faster and generate higher economic growth rates.
We had the opportunity, Bogov explained, to also hear the most recent projections of both the IMF and the World Bank, and we can conclude that their observations are very similar with the ones of the National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia. Their projections, he pointed out, are close to ours and it is good to see how the others perceive our economic policies.
– It was pleasant to hear that Macedonian economy is set on sound basis and that we should continue on that path. Structural reforms are something that has to be constantly implemented, of course being cautious thereby and taking care for the economy not to be out of balance, to react on time and to again stabilize it on the very path we have walked in the past years, Governor of the National bank of Macedonia, Bogov, said.
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