A delegation led by the Governor of the National Bank, Anita Angelovska Bezhoska and the Minister of Finance, Dragan Tevdovski, participated in the Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, USA. The delegation is expected to hold meetings with high representatives of the IMF, the WB, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), as well as with representatives of other international financial organizations and institutions.

Within these event, separate meetings between our delegation and the Director of the IMF’s European Department Poul Thomsen, the IMF’s Executive Directors Anthony De Lannoy and Richard Doornbosch, as well as the head of the IMF mission for our country, Jesmin Rahman, are scheduled. The focus of the meetings with the high representatives of the IMF will be monetary policy, economic development and economic indicators monitored by the central bank, as well as the situation in the banking sector in our country. Special attention will be paid to the technical assistance that the IMF provides to the National Bank.

The results from the so far successful cooperation between our central bank and the IMF will be analyzed in details at the meetings that the Governor Angelovska Bezhoska will hold together with the heads of several directorates of this international organization, including the directorates for statistics and monetary and capital markets. At the same time, the possibilities for IMF support for further improvement of the work of the National Bank will be discussed, enabled through technical and advisory cooperation in the area of statistical reporting standards and economic forecast models.

The delegation is scheduled to meet with the Vice President of the World Bank for Europe and Central Asia, Cyril Muller, with the WB’s Regional Director of the Western Balkans, Linda Van Gelder, as well as with the WB’s Executive Director for the Constituency, where our country is a member, Koen Davidse. At these meetings, both financial and banking system will be discussed, as well as financial stability in the country in general. The delegation will hold meetings also with the Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe and Central Asia, Georgina Baker.

Among other things, at the meeting with the EIB’s Vice President Andre McDowell and the EIB’s Director General for Credit Operations Jean-Christophe Laloux, the National Bank and the EIB will sign a Memorandum of Understanding regarding the implementation of the EIB Credit Activity Survey for the Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe.

As a representative of the six countries of the region that are not members of the European Union yet, the Governor Angelovska Bezhoska will participate also in the meeting of the Supervisory Board of the Vienna Initiative 2, to be held within the Meetings in Washington.

The Spring Meetings of the IMF and the WB are held annually and they are attended by the governors of the central banks and the finance ministers of the member states. The emphasis on the discussions during the Meetings is put on the current developments in the world economy and on important topics, such as economic growth encouragement, poverty reduction and promotion of sustainable and inclusive economic development for all target groups in the society.