The measure taken by the Government to reduce VAT from 18 to 10 percent for oil derivatives, and now the opportunity for the Regulatory Commission to reduce excise duties on both diesel and unleaded fuels, contributed to having one of the lowest inflation rates on a monthly basis, Macedonian Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said Wednesday in Parliament.
Responding to MP and SDSM leader Venko Filipche about the measures the Government has taken to manage the crisis, Mickoski said that the measures taken by the SDSM and DUI-led Government have brought debts and to this day the debts are being repaid.
PM Mickoski stresses that when the opposition makes a comparison of the measures and the economy, it should make a comparison of real parameters.
“The Government in the past six quarters has generated an average growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 3.5 percent. Real and nominal over 7 percent. The government led by SDSM and DUI, on the other hand, in the first six quarters had GDP growth of 1.8 percent, nominal under 6 percent. If you want to take all 28 quarters, as that Government functioned, the growth was below 2.8 percent. So the difference is two to one. Otherwise, for the inflation rate, exactly the measure that the government took – reducing VAT from 18 to 10 percent, and now the opportunity for the Regulatory Commission to reduce excise duties on both diesel and unleaded fuels – contributed to us having one of the lowest inflation rates on a monthly basis. Here I will read them to you, Bulgaria is 0.9, we are 0.7, let’s say Germany is 1.2, Ireland is 1.7, Greece is 2, Spain is 1.5, Croatia is 1.2, etc. Only four countries in Europe have a lower monthly inflation rate: Slovenia, Belgium, Estonia, which of course has a high one, and Slovakia. All the others have a higher monthly inflation rate,” noted PM Mickoski.
