The latest World Bank report on “Global Economic Perspectives” finds that Macedonia will fall far short of the rosy growth expectations pushed forward by Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, who said that we’ll grow by 5 percent, “God willing”.

But, according to the WB report, Macedonia hope to achieve a growth rate of 3.2 percent in 2020 and 3.3 percent in 2021. Zaev’s Government predicted a rate of 3.2 percent in 2018, a prognosis which the World Bank never found realistic. According to them, in 2019, Macedonia will grow by 2.9 percent.

Under Zaev, Macedonia introduced a bevy of new taxes and regulations, and the Prime Minister and his Finance Ministry began using the language of redistribution and “fairness”. Macedonia quickly dropped on the international reports that mark openness to doing business.