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

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

📖 Our latest Brief 67 – who made the most of the government’s anti-crisis measures?

Today marks two years since the attack on #Ukraine – the date associated with the start of the 🍞 food and 🔌 energy price crisis.
📖 On that occasion, our latest Policy Brief 6️⃣7️⃣ examines who has made the most of the government’s anti-crisis package.
📍 The measures saved a significant #part of household income, especially the #poorer households and especially the measures from the #last package that are in force during this year 2024.
📍 However, as a significant contingent of the measures were #untargeted, especially from the #first package, they allocated/saved a larger #amount of income to wealthier households.
📍 Although the targeting of the measures from the third package is the largest of all three packages, at least two of the measures carry the risk of an increased budget burden. In particular, support for #pensioners remains relatively broadly targeted and resembles a #pre-election measure.
📎 cutt.ly/1wNYtgx0
The analysis is supported by SMART Balkans.

Finance Think has become part of the European Economic and Social Committee, EESC

Finance Think became part of the European Economic and Social Committee, EESC.

📣 On Thursday, the EESC officially launched its initiative to involve representatives of #civil society from EU candidate countries.

🎖 Finance Think is part of 5️⃣ selected representatives of civil society from North Macedonia, in addition to representatives of employers and workers (unions).

As representatives of civil society from candidate countries, we will contribute to the process of drafting selected #opinions of the EESC and participate in relevant #study groups, section meetings and selected #plenary sessions of the EESC.

#EUCivilSociety #Enlargement #EESC #FinanceThink

Findings from our #study at a conference in Pristina

🗣️  We shared the findings of our #study on unregistered micro-executives of economic activity at the conference “Shaping the future agenda for reducing the #administrative burden in the Western Balkans”, which was held in Pristina, Republic of Kosovo, February 7-8, 2024.

🟡 The European Union and the #German Government, OECD/SIGMA and GIZ Kosovo are investing in the dialogue on the various stages of service delivery reform, with the aim of reducing administrative burdens and ensuring high-quality and easily accessible services for businesses and citizens in the #WesternBalkans.

#GrayEconomy #AdministrativeBurden

Photo credit: GIZ Kosovo

In an interview for MRTV, Blagica Petreski talks about current economic topics.

⚠️ ВThe second domestic risk for inflation is what pressure the general increase in wages and pensions will have on prices. A cost of living adjustment is fine, it just preserves the real purchasing power of the recipients, but any increase above that is a risk in an inflationary environment. It is legitimate what the unions demand that wages should rise significantly, and I #agree with that, but in the long run, more wages come with more #work and greater #skills, that is, all of this defines the #productivity of labor. We suffer from chronically low labor productivity and this is a major determinant of wage growth. Let’s have no doubt that any wage growth that exceeds productivity growth will only affect #prices in the long run, so the standard of living will not improve in real terms.

 

More: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2coqh0KeeY