Macedonia's economic growth hits lowest level of last 5 years

SKOPJE, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- Macedonia's economic growth for 2017 stands at 0.5 percent, the lowest level recorded in the last five years, the governor of Macedonia's national bank, Dimitar Bogov, told a press conference Monday.

"We remain at the projection of 0.5 percent in 2017, which was confirmed in Q3 momentum. We will be very close to the real growth, but we will know this in March 2018 when we will have the Q4 data in 2017," Bogov told reporters.

Bogov said he expected 2018 to be better for Macedonia's economy in terms of GDP growth, but stressed the need for improvement and said some conditions needed be met.

He called for a more stable political environment and certainty, which he said could be achieved through the improvement of investments, the increase of personal consumption, and a continuation of the flow of foreign direct investment.

The governor also noted that Macedonia had had a negative year in terms of investments, attributing the drop in investments to the prolonged political crisis and the uncertainty felt by investors due to the political situation in the country, especially in the first half of 2017. Enditem