From the pompously announced economic year in which Zoran Zaev was promising
a strong economic boom, we are actually ringing in 2020 with major economic
failures for which the incompetent government of SDSM led by Zoran Zaev is to
blame. Instead of a 5% economic growth rate, we are witnessing a growth of less
than 3.5% which in absolute numbers means EUR 150 million lower value added in
the economy. The standard of workers is far from Zaev’s promises of an average
salary of 30,000 denars, VMRO-DPMNE said.
State interventionism and unproductive spending of public money are on the rise, as
reflected in the galloping trend of debt and public debt growth by more than 900m
euros in the period when SDSM is in power.
Political and business tensions, a series of business affairs and racketeering, the
lack of substantial reforms in the economy, the growth of corruption and the gray
economy, frequent thoughtless changes in regulation and tax policy have seriously
undermined the business climate and business sector confidence. This year we saw
a decline of 7 places on the Doing Business rankings that measures the country’s
reforms and progress in terms of doing business, and the business community rated
the year as extremely difficult for domestic companies. Foreign investors have given
the government a big zero, which is seen as a confirmation of the historically lowest
level of FDI this year.
The only thing that SDSM and Zaev delivered this year is the historically lowest level
of capital investment in 2019. The rate of realization of capital expenditures is below
50%, which means 200 million euros less realized infrastructure and capital projects
for the needs of the citizens and the business sector.
Instead of realistic economic policies to encourage the long-term development of the
country in order to improve the living standards of the citizens, we have witnessed
populist and cosmetic policies aimed at pre-election bribery of citizens. The result of
such misguided economic policies is a serious decline in the country’s productivity
and export competitiveness and a deterioration in the overall economic situation that
restricts the economic opportunities of citizens as a result of which they leave the
country.
