Skopje, 26 December 2025 (MIA) – The government during its four-year term should pay off six billion euros in loans taken out by the former SDSM-DUI government. Next year alone, the state should pay off debts alongside a budget deficit of nearly 2.2 billion euros. However, there will be no crisis, liquidity has been ensured, Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said Friday.

Asked by reporters why opposition leader Venko Filipche has said that next year will be hit by a crisis with loans to be paid off and the EU integration process being blocked, Mickoski said he is engaging in fearmongering.

“The structure is the following: 700 million euros is a Eurobond that the SDSM and DUI government took out in 2022, for four years with an effective interest rate of 7.5 percent, and we need to pay it off. According to the initial analyses that we have, it will be much more favorable than the one they have taken, now we are only thinking about what the coupon should be. The budget deficit is considered a standard one, it needs to be returned, the difference between expenses and revenues. We plan to repay that budget deficit with securities on the domestic market, and other loans are due, which the SDSM and DUI government has also raised in the past. In other words, over two billion euros need to be returned,” the prime minister said speaking to reporters after the promotion of 120 police cars at an event in Skopje. 

The current government, he added, will keep on facing challenges not only next year, but also in 2027 and 2028.

Because, Mickoski said, in 2027 we will again have to repay a Eurobond raised by the SDSM and DUI government of 500 million euros, and we are not stopping there, in 2028 we will again have to repay a Eurobond raised by the SDSM and DUI government of 700 new million euros. “That is approximately the period that we have as a government. This year we have already repaid one Eurobond of 500 million euros. So, for four years of government, every year we repay one Eurobond raised by the SDSM and DUI government. Approximately six billion euros is the entire debt that should be repaid during this four-year mandate of this government,” he stated.

The public and businesses should rest assured because “liquidity has been ensured, there will be no crisis the same as there will be no migrants.

The prime minister accused the opposition of fearmongering since “it lacks ideas and plans.”

It’s very important that economic parameters are stable and optimistic with inflation reducing and exports increasing, according to him. 

Mickoski announced that another tranche to help boost businesses is in the works “like the one we already handed out.” “Which makes Macedonia, believe it or not, a country in Europe with the lowest interest rate, which is used by business compared to all countries in Europe. That is why investments in the first two quarters, i.e. in the first half of this year, are somewhere between 13-15 percent, while in Europe in the same period it is 2.5 percent. When the opposition mentioned that 60 billion denars were missing in the budget, 30 billion have already entered the budget and if we add to that our own revenues, those 60 billion are already in circulation and in liquidity in the country,” he stated. 

Mickoski said the deadline for companies to pay VAT ended yesterday. “All December figures are double-digit exceeding projections. We expect not only to fulfil the revenues but also to exceed them,” he concluded. 

Photo: government