Macedonia 'Coming Out' of Recession

The Macedonian economy will come out of recession in the first quarter of 2010, Finance Minister Zoran Stavreski said in a statement.

He based his optimism on the positive results shown in the final months of last year, saying that this trend should continue.

“Considering the data from the last two months of 2009, i.e. the industrial production growth of 4 per cent in November and 20 per cent in December, Macedonia’s economy has actually been coming out of recession,” Stavreski told media on Monday.
 
Stavreski argued that the state was able to more effectively tackle the global financial crisis that started last year because of its previous successes in 2007 and 2008, when some of the country’s debt was served earlier than anticipated.

“This has decreased our indebtedness, creating better conditions for requesting additional financial support during difficult periods,” he said.

Last year much of the country’s flagship metal, textile and construction industries were faced with decreased demand on the foreign markets. Some data show that the country ended the year with with a drop of 2 per cent in its annual growth rate.

Global financial institutions have predicted the gradual recovery of the whole Western Balkans region this year.
 
Macedonia foresees an annual growth rate of some two per cent in 2010, and if all goes well the country should be back to its 2008 rate of over five per cent annual growth by 2011.