Home slider - Finance Think

Category: Home slider

Our contribution to the publication of the Aspen Institute

Our brief on “Digitization and Delivery of Public Services” contributed to the publication “Digitization and Democratization in #WesternBalkans” by Aspen Institute Germany. 😊

This publication provides an overview of the recommendations developed at the conference in Podgorica in December 2023.

FT Opinion 61 for the economic #promises of political parties

Check out our latest FT Opinion

that analyzes the economic promises of SDSM and VMRO-DPMNE through the lens of economic #analysis, research #evidence, and #data.🔗 Link to FT Opinion 61

Memorandum of Cooperation with the Fiscal Council

🤝 Today we are proud to announce the signing of a Memorandum of Cooperation with the Fiscal Council of North Macedonia! 🇲🇰

Established for the first time in 2023, this Council plays a key role in overseeing #fiscal policy, ensuring accountability and transparency in the use of public finances.

💰 Our #collaboration will involve joint initiatives in areas such as fiscal analysis, sustainability of public debt, efficiency of public spending, 📈 monitoring of capital investments, and other related fields.

📊💼 #FiscalCouncil #Finance #Accountability #Transparency

The economy in times of elections – Blagica Petreski spoke for the Greek National Television

📢 On current #economic topics about wages, prices, and living standards during elections and citizens’ economic #expectations, our Executive Director Blagica Petreski spoke on the Greek national television ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΡΑΔΙΟΦΩΝΙΑ ΤΗΛΕΟΡΑΣΗ – Σύνορα.

🖇 shorturl.at/mnsD5

Finance Think with initial activities in the European Economic and Social Committee

A productive start to the week in Brussels!

Reflecting on our initial activities and contributions to the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC). Our Executive Director Blagica Petreski met with colleagues and partners from Finance Think at the institutions of the European Union in Brussels, Belgium, on April 22, 2024.

Participating in the meeting of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), the critical aspects of accessibility and adequacy of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services for economic development and household well-being were discussed. We take pride in supporting policies for sustainable development and improving living standards.

#EESC #Development #Wellbeing

In an interview for Lokalno.mk, Blagica Petreski speaks on current economic topics

The whole interview is available here.

Finance Think has become a partner of the International Budget Partnership

The partnership will analyze, monitor and make proposals related to budget spending and public debt in the country.

The new Policy Study 51 examines the fiscal space in the Western Balkans

⚠️ How much did the #food and #energy price crisis cost us?

⚠️ How did the crises #constrain the fiscal space?

Our latest 📖 Policy Study 5️⃣1️⃣ brings an overview and analysis of the fiscal space in the Western Balkans countries through recent crises: the COVID-19 pandemic and the food and energy price crisis.

📌 Moderate debt and partially stable budget deficits before the pandemic allowed Western Balkan governments to provide significant budgetary #support to cope with the pandemic crisis in 2020 and 2021.

📌 Although signs of recovery were visible in 2021, the fiscal space further #deteriorated as a result of the geopolitical conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

📌 Results indicate that the possibility of implementing fiscal #packages is significantly determined by the fiscal space created in non-crisis periods.

📌 It is necessary to build up budget #reserves during non-crisis periods to provide room for intervention when needed most.

📌 In 2022, #subsidies for household electricity in North Macedonia reached 3.2% of GDP or 9.2% of public expenditures.

📌 Findings suggest a decrease in spending on #healthcare and #social protection in favor of increased budgetary support for electricity subsidies.

📌 Findings point to the need for: 1️⃣. #reduction of electricity subsidies by the end of 2024, accompanied by direct transfers to the most vulnerable households, enabling fiscal space for more and higher-quality other public services, as well as 2️⃣. #increased investments in the energy sector, accompanied by improved energy efficiency on the consumer side.

Link to the full study: rb.gy/649l2e

The study was created with the support of SMART Balkans.

🇲🇰 Finance Think
🇦🇱 ACIT
🇲🇪 @ISSP.me

🇷🇸 Center for Advanced Economic Studies – CEVES

🇽🇰 Instituti GAP

🇧🇦 CREDI

WEBecon Network

⚠️ We continue our cooperation with Economy and Business, a prominent economic magazine

In a joint initiative, the findings of our #research will be conveyed in the magazine in a condensed form in order to bring the results of the research work and their policy relevance to a wider readership.

The panel debate on tackling multidimensional child poverty successfully conveyed

Through created knowledge and dialogue with the relevant institutions, we prioritized policies to deal with multidimensional child poverty in the three sectors: social protection, health and education.

Measuring indicators for children is crucial for monitoring the effectiveness of measures and policies and for timely correction.

Child poverty is a multidimensional problem and requires a multi-sectoral approach.

The initiative is in partnership with UNICEF MK

Representatives of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education and Science, the State Statistics Office, the Bureau for the Development of Education and other institutions from the relevant sectors were actively involved.

More photos at the link: https://shorturl.at/rxyHW