English
Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski stated today at the parliamentary questions session that, according to data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the current government is 2.5 to 3 times more efficient and successful than the previous government.
There will be no new borrowing of 350 million euros in June, said Mickoski, pointing out that with the latest borrowing of 260 million euros, the maturing portion of the Eurobond of 700 million euros will be repaid and that in this way both gross and net borrowing will be reduced.
According to data from the IMF, said Mickoski, during the period of the previous government of SDSM and DUI, the public debt amounted to 4.787 billion EUR in early 2018 and rose to 8.477 billion EUR at the end of 2023.
The nominal gross domestic product in 2018, Mickoski said, amounted to 11.34 billion USD. On December 31, 2023, the nominal gross domestic product was 15.86 billion dollars, or in total, SDSM and DUI managed to add 4.52 billion dollars to the nominal gross domestic product over a period of 6 years, and they made the state indebted for 3.69 billion EUR at the same time.
My Government, which they like to dismiss as incompetent, – had a gross domestic product of 16.95 billion euros in January 2025, and this year, according to the International Monetary Fund estimates and the budget projections, we are going to reach 21.61 billion euros. An added value of 4.66 billion EUR. The difference between their 6 years and these 2 years is 140 million in favor of this Government. At the same time, we borrowed 1.381 billion EUR. The added value for the period of these two years is greater than that during their 6 years, and the debt is almost two and a half to three times smaller, said Mickoski.
All this, the Prime Minister pointed out, is in conditions when we have an epic energy crisis. Commenting on the claims about an increase in the budget deficit, he assessed that “with this historically high level of capital investments”, the budget deficit will be smaller than it was before. He said that “the government will resolve and complete the project that was the biggest generator of the deficit” – the construction of the highways on corridors 8 and 10d, which is being implemented by the Bechtel and Enka consortium. “The biggest driver, the biggest generator of deficit, is the project that I often, when I was in opposition, referred to as criminal and manipulative . I don’t know why the opposition thinks that I have changed that opinion. Yes, it is criminal. Yes, it is manipulative. A non-transparent procedure, misuse of the Parliament procedures.. But what were we supposed to do, leave those 350 million euros that they gave as an advance, money of the citizens’ money, and abandon the project? On the contrary, our task as a Government is to take care of the citizens’ money and complete the projects as quickly as possible so that we can repay the debts that they left behind. And the biggest generator of the budget deficit is precisely that project, said Mickoski.