Additional Deputy Finance Minister Gordana Dimitrieska-Kocoska said in Telma TV’s “Top Tema” that the government’s response was too late. “However, we can’t turn back time and we must think ahead in order to avert a larger financial crisis,” she said.
So far we have a set of measures that would help tourism, hospitality and transportation industries, but not subsidizing them but merely a break from paying some of the taxes over three months. And we are yet to see if the break will mean a full break. For weeks VMRO-DPMNE has been proposing far more robust measures to support the private sector, by covering half the salary of companies in the worst hit industries, but the SDSM led Government has dragged its heels on this. We need to stimulate spending, we need spending, but with this proposal we won’t have any. We need quick money that will support liquidity and we mustn’t do anything that would adversely affect spending even more. This is why we say that now is not the time to cut spending. We are the only country even considering this, Dimitrieska-Kocoska said.
