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Macedonia starts cutting down gov't debts: finance ministry

Xinhua, November 25, 2016 Adjust font size:

SKOPJE, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -­- The Macedonian government has started to repay some of its loans in order to lower the level of public debt in the country, the Macedonian finance ministry said Friday.

The Macedonian government has repaid the 130- million-euro loan it borrowed some five years ago from Citibank and Deutche Bank, thus lowering the government debt by 1.4 percent, the finance ministry explained.

It further said that the funds for the loan repayments were secured from the Eurobond that was issued in July of this year.

However, there is also concern among economy experts here, as well as Macedonian opposition parties, over the rising level of the public debt.

According to official statistics, at the end of the third quarter of 2016, Macedonia's public debt amounted to 4.7 billion euros (5 billion U.S. dollars) or 50.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

Meanwhile, the country's public debt at the end of 2015 was 46.7 percent of GDP, so it has seen an increase of around four percent.

Opposition political parties have often accused the government of deepening the country's debts and hampering the economy but representatives of the government have declared there is no reason to worry about the current level of debt, adding that Macedonia has almost the lowest level of debt in the region.

But the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has demanded the Macedonian government take urgent measures to cut expenses and start fiscal consolidation. According to the IMF, Macedonia's public debt should be below 50 percent of GDP.

According to IMF forecasts, the public debt will reach the level of 54.7 percent in the next five years and this is why they called on authorities here to undertake measures that would prevent such a rapid increase of debts. Endit