Macedonian Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski says the Government is closely monitoring fuel prices on global markets in line with the developments related to the conflict in the Middle East, stressing that future government steps will be based on those parameters, as measures to provide support have already been in place for three months.
Mickoski notes that the Government has been implementing support measures due to the crisis in the Middle East for three months now and that as a result, fuel prices in the country are the lowest in the region.
“We have reduced excise duties, reduced VAT for unleaded gasoline, that has cost the Budget quite a bit in these 60 days. But it is what it is. The result of all this is the cheapest fuels in the region. And what we are doing is trying to use all the measures at our disposal to protect the citizens’ standard of living,” Mickoski said.
According to the PM, the current Government with its measures is handling the crisis significantly better than the previous Government.
“This is a global crisis, times are hard, but if you compare these measures that this Government is taking, which according to the International Monetary Fund as a percentage of GDP is third in Europe, and those from 2022, the situation is dramatically better. Back then, we had double-digit inflation, and now, according to all authorities in this area, we are talking about a crisis that, in terms of its scale and scope, is greater than those two energy crises in the 1970s and the energy crisis in 2022 combined,” added PM Mickoski.
