Skopje, 10 December 2024 (MIA) – The Parliament, during its 22nd session on Tuesday afternoon, approved the 2025 budget with 69 votes in favour and 5 against. The total revenues are projected at 358.8 billion denars, while the expenditures are forecasted at 400.2 billion denars. The budget deficit is projected to be 41.350 million denars, or 4 percent of GDP, with an anticipated economic growth rate of 3.7 percent.

Finance Minister Gordana Dimitrieska Kochoska during her presentation of the 2025 draft-budget to the members of Parliament on Tuesday said that the budget is built on realistic macroeconomic assumptions and fiscal projections and guarantees the uninterrupted operation of institutions and the state, the regular servicing of obligations, and, most notably for the new government, its developmental focus by encouraging the realization of a significant investment cycle.

With 74 votes in favour, the Parliament unanimously approved the decision for the reallocation of funds between the budget users of the central government and between the funds.

As noted by Deputy Minister of Finance Nikola Jankulovski, the decision is intended to cover the obligations of budget users inherited from the former government, and the funds will be drawn from items that are clearly not going to be spent by the end of the year.

The proposed decision, he pointed out, includes the reallocation of 9.3 billion denars, of which 2.2 billion are allocated to the Pension Insurance Fund, 1.9 billion to the Ministry of Social Policy, Demography, and Youth, 1.2 billion denars to the Agency for Financial Support of Agriculture and Rural Development, 1.16 billion denars for transfers to the Health Insurance Fund, 873 million denars to the Ministry of Interior for the implementation of the Safe City project and other needs, 656 million denars to the Government for financial support to companies, 543 million denars to the Ministry of Education and Science for student and pupil welfare, 267 million denars to the Ministry of Digital Transformation, 203 million denars to the Ministry of Culture, 168 million denars to the Ministry of Transport, 130 million denars to the Ministry of Health for medications for patients with rare diseases, 94 million denars to the Directorate for Execution of Sanctions, 50 million denars to the Food and Veterinary Agency, and 35 million denars to the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning.

“The goal of the proposed decision is to reduce the obligations of budget users and to improve the management of public finances,” Jankulovski said.

Photo: MIA archive