North Macedonia's PM outlines Euro-bond repayment plan

Prime Minister of North Macedonia Hristijan Mickoski expects 2029 and 2030 to be the years when the country will not have to issue a Euro-bond.

He noted that 2025 will be the first year ending with a five-digit nominal GDP per capita, CE Report quotes MIA.

"Next year's nominal GDP will exceed US$20 billion, with this year's nominal GDP per capita to stand at US$10,500 and over US$30,000 in purchasing power. This is more than Albania and Kosovo, slightly less than Serbia and Montenegro, which I expect we will catch up in 2026," PM Mickoski told a press briefing.

According to him, these numbers are calculated according to the Census population data.

"The structure is more of a problem. Skopje has a nominal GDP per capita of US$18,000 and over US$45,000 in purchasing power, but the rest of Macedonia is worse, primarily the Polog and Northeast regions," noted Mickoski.

According to him, inflation must range between 2-3 percent in order to maintain the macroeconomic stability, while observing collective agreements and producing an average wage growth rate of 9-10 percent.

"And this musr be accompanied by a real GDP growth of about 3.5-4 percent and a nominal growth between 7-8 percent. We need to maintain this level if we want to have a stable economy," said Mickoski.

Regarding bonds, the PM said EUR 500 million were repaid using the Hungarian loan this year, EUR 700 million should be repaid in 2026, EUR 500 million in 2027, and EUR 700 million in 2028, while expecting the country to take a breather in 2029 and 2030.

"In 2026, the Euro-bond amounts to EUR 700 million, plus a EUR 600-million budget deficit and other maturing loans, so it will be quite a challenging period, since this represents a serious share of a EUR 7 billion budget," underlined Mickoski.