Macedonia Sets Record Budget for 2012

Macedonian Finance Minister Zoran Stavreski | Photo by: gov.mk

Macedonia has set next year’s budget at about €2.77 billion, with revenues estimated at about €2,58 billion.

This mean running a deficit equivalent to 2.5 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product, the same as this year.
 
Compared to this year, the budget for 2012 will be some €150 million bigger, money that the government plans to collect through increased revenues from taxes and investments.
 
The draft budget “is realistic and attainable considering the present circumstances, namely the economic situation in Europe and across the globe,” Finance Minister Zoran Stavreski said after the government passed the draft.

The government hopes it will achieve growth of 4.5 per cent, despite projections from various world financial institutions that it will not surpass 3 per cent.

Stavreski maintains that growth will be boosted by big increase in capital investments financed from the budget for next year. The draft foresees a 28 per cent rise in capital investments compared to this year.
 
This forms part of the government's strategy of compensating for expected reduced demand for Macedonian companies and products on the world market.

The government has envisaged inflation running at 2.5 per cent.
 
Prior to the passage of the draft budget some local economic experts have said more money should be spent on improving infrastructure, to ensure that money from the budget goes on projects that have the potential to create revenue in future.

Stavreski said that a significant part of the money earmarked for investment will be spent on continuing the makeover of the capital, known as “Skopje 2014”.
 
The draft budget is expected to get a green light soon from parliament in which the government of Nikola Gruevski and his VMRO DPMNE party has a stable majority.