Macedonia will pay higher interest rates after the failure of its attempt to issue a 600 million EUR bond in order to revolve its debt. The bond issue was planned to go ahead this week, but due to the Government reshuffle and the sacking of the Justice Minister Nikola Tupancevski refused to give his approval in his last days in office.

As a result of this failure, the Finance Ministry held a smaller bond auction for bonds maturing in just two years, and received offers for high 5.25 percent, said the opposition VMRO-DPMNE party. “Previously, Macedonia would get 5 percent rates on bonds maturing in 15 years and now we get a higher rate for two year bonds. This shows the deteriorated reputation before the international institutions and will just add to our debt”, the opposition party said.