Skopje, 5 April 2023 

Digital platforms and payment channels are used more frequently by our citizens, as the data not only for the last quarter of 2022, but for the entire year show, and which the National Bank regularly processes and publishes. 

At the end of 2022, 2.1 million payment cards were in circulation, of which 70% were based on contactless technology. The infrastructure for accepting payments with payment cards, on the other hand, counts 30,011 POS terminals at 13,359 merchants in the country, 86% of which support contactless technology. According to these data, our citizens were able to make payments in a convenient and reliable way. The number of cards with contactless technology and POS terminals that support this technology recorded an annual growth (compared to 2021) of 1% i.e. 3%, respectively. An annual growth of 16% compared to 2021 was also registered in the number of merchants who accept payment cards when selling goods and services at POS terminals in the country. 

In the fourth quarter of 2022, the citizens prefer to pay with payment cards in trade, which is seen through the increased annual growth in the number and the payments value, by 11% and 16%, respectively. The number and the value of the citizens' payments via credit transfers (so-called payment orders) recorded a growth of 6% and 2%, respectively. Although the payments based on credit transfers are still mostly made at the bank counters (74%), the data pertaining to the last quarter of the year also confirm the increasing use of digital channels, registering an annual growth of 12% in the number and 14% in the value of payments initiated electronically and growth of 21% in the number and 25% in the value of payments initiated using mobile applications.

The changing habits of the citizens, more precisely the more frequent use of digital channels for making payments, by the end of 2022, led to an annual growth of 13% in payments with payment cards in commerce and an annual growth of 8% in payments with credit transfers initiated electronically.

For the payments executed by accepting payment cards, according to the latest data for 2022, merchants paid an average fee of 1.13% of the turnover value, which is less by 0.06 pp compared to 2021. The biggest decrease is observed in the compensation for payments at gas stations (by 0.19 pp), public and communal services (by 0.19 pp) and in electronic commerce (by 0.14 pp).

[2]. The indicators of financial inclusion of the population further confirm the high rate of financial inclusion through the key indicator - the possession of a payment account. Namely, at the end of 2022, citizens had an average of 1.8 accounts per capita, which is 0.1 accounts more than the average number of accounts per capita[1] with the population in the European Union. Account holders have been using digital services for access to around 42% of the accounts, while electronic payments are made in 18% of the accounts.

According to the data on the age structure of the account holders, in 2022 a higher use of digital services is evident among all age groups, compared to last year. An annual growth in the number of payment accounts of active accessors and the number of payment accounts of active payers was recorded by 19% and 9%, respectively. At the same time, the most common users of digital channels for viewing bills and making electronic payments are the age groups from 25 to 54 years old, with 2.3 bills per capita. Namely, most of the accounts they hold, i.e. over 51% were available to them for electronic insight, and 24% for making electronic payments.

Regarding the gender structure of the account holders, the data indicate a gender gap of 0.5 accounts more in favor of men (2.1 accounts per capita of male gender, versus 1.6 accounts per capita of female gender However, compared to men, during 2022 women were moderately more active in using digital channels to view accounts and make payments. Thus, 41% of accounts owned by women were used for payment through internet banking or a mobile payment application, while men used 40% of their accounts for that purpose. At the same time, women made at least one electronic inspection of the status and changes in 63% of their accounts, and men in 62%.

According to the availability of infrastructure by municipality, the highest coverage with ATMs per ten thousand inhabitants was recorded in Mavrovo and Rostuse (12), Ohrid, Dojran and Gevgelija (10), and the highest coverage with POS terminals per ten thousand inhabitants was recorded in Gevgelija (321), Ohrid (285) and Skopje (269).  Within the City of Skopje, the largest coverage with ATMs and POS terminals on ten thousand inhabitants is that of the municipalities of Centar, Karpoš and Aerodrom.

You can access the published data on the following link: https://www.nbrm.mk/platiezhna_statistika.nspx     

[1]  The calculation of the indicators per capita uses data from the State Statistical Office for the resident population from the Census carried out in 2021.

[2] The data refer to 2021 and are taken from the European Central Bank database.