The Statistics Bureau informs that the cost of living are up 3 percent in May compared to May 2020, and that retail prices went up by 3.9 percent – indicative of the growing inflation rate.

This is before the announced new 4 denar duty per liter of diesel kicks in – it is expected to add to the inflationary pressure. The Central Bank revised its initial estimate of a 1.5 percent inflation rate for 2021 to 2.2 percent.

Meanwhile, the SSM union estimated that the cost of living for an average household hit 560 EUR, well above the average salary. The Union found that the price of the basic goods and services is 180 denars here in May, and 400 in total for the past two months (1EUR=60 denars).

On the other hand, facing difficult municipal elections in October, the Zaev regime decided to offer vouchers for various goods and services to select groups of citizens, in an attempt to buy votes and paper over the growing costs of living. The latest such move is the offer of travel vouchers worth 200 EUR that will be awarded to 1,250 families whose income is under 500 EUR a month. The proposal was dismissed by the opposition VMRO-DPMNE party.

We have 600,000 citizens living in poverty with barely 2 EUR per month, 60,000 are newly unemployed and 6,000 mainly family businesses have closed. The Government added 2.4 billion EUR in new debts and managed to build nothing with those funds. In this light, measures such as awarding tourism vouchers are naked populism meant to temporarily buy the silence of the citizens, while doing nothing to actually drive our economy and industry, the opposition party said.