Skopje, 27 October 2022 

Last year, 85.3% of the country's population over 15 years of age owned an account, while in the region we are ranked second in terms of financial inclusion. An increasing number of our citizens hold debit and credit cards and the growing number shop online, but we still lag behind the European average. This is shown by the latest World Bank data from the Global Findex database which include 123 countries worldwide (https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/globalfindex).

World Bank data show growing financial inclusion in our country. In the past five years, it has been higher by 8.7 percentage points. We are ranked second in the region in terms of financial inclusion, right after Serbia (89%). However, we lag by 4.7 percentage points behind the European and Central Asian average.

According to the Global Findex database, there is an increasing number of credit card holders in our country (by 5 percentage points (22%)) in 2021 compared to 2017, and a growing use of payment cards (by 6 percentage points (43%)), while the number of debit card holders remains unchanged (53%). Compared to countries in the region, we have a higher percentage of debit or credit card usage than Kosovo and Albania, while lower than Bulgaria, Serbia and Turkey. Analyzed by age groups, population aged 15 to 24 registered the highest jump in 2021 of 18 percentage points compared to 2017. This points to greater financial inclusion among young population considering the holding of debit and credit cards.

The data show that the population over the age of 15 in our country is increasingly using a mobile phone or the Internet for online shopping. In 2021, 30.5% of our population shopped online, while in 2017 this percentage was 16.9%. However, it is still lower compared to the countries of Europe and Central Asia.

Financial inclusion is of particular importance for the economic development of a country, hence one of the strategic goals of the National Bank is to ensure a higher level of financial education and inclusion. The first national Strategy for Financial Education and Financial Inclusion was adopted and is being implemented and aims to ensure greater financial inclusion in various financial system segments, greater involvement of regulatory institutions in terms of education and regulation, but also of private financial institutions in terms of greater accessibility and awareness of the offered financial services.