Vienna Economic Forum

Financing of Investments. Assistance from the EU and International Financial Institution

H.E. Trajko Slaveski, PhD

Minister of Finance of the Republic of Macedonia

BASIC MACROECONOMIC DATA OF THE REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA

-GDP

- 6.5% growth in the second quarter of 2008

-Inflation

- It started to decline from the middle of the year

- Expected inflation by the end of 2008 from 5% to 5.5%

-FDIs

- EUR 301 million in the first eight months in 2008.

- They are envisaged to reach 8.3% of GDP by end-2008 .

BASIC MACROECONOMIC DATA OF THE REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA

7.88.18.39.16.81.7 - Foreign direct investments

(% of GDP)

58055051550634677Foreign direct investments in EUR

million

-11.8-12.7-14.2-3.1-0.9-2.6 - Current account deficit (% of

GDP)

External sector

2.83.06.02.33.20.5Inflation (CPI, average)

6.06.06.05.04.04.1 Gross Domestic Product - real

growth rate

Real sector

2010 proj.2009 proj.2008 proj.200720062005

BUSNISESS ENVIROMENT

-Tax reforms -Flat tax and lowering of social contributions-Regulatory guillotine-Leading business portal Forbes ranked Macedonia at

the 50th position in running business in its Best Countries for Business Report (leap by 32 places from 2007)

-Doing Business Report confirmed the achieved progress, ranking our country at the 71st position (79th in 2007)

PUBLIC DEBT

General Government debt is significantly lower than the Maastricht criteria and amounts to only 20.7% of GDP (first half of 2008)

FURTHER INVESTMENTS OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA

Strategic investments of the Governemet of the Republic of Macedonia

- road infrastucture

- railway infrastructure

- energy sector

BANKING SECTOR

- Macedonian banking sector remains highly liquid, solvent and profitable

- Adequacy ratio of the total banking sector of 15.6% (almost double the Basel Standard).

- Banking sector in the Republic of Macedonia is stable and it is able to amortize the external shocks at the moment.

EU ASSISTANCE

Official candidate status since December 2005 Acreditation of all five IPA componenets is expected in

2009 Total EU assistance to the country since 1992

amounts to more than EUR 870 million.

Thank you for your attention!

www.finance.gov.mk