The National Bank conducts prudent macroeconomic policies that enable maintenance of the macroeconomic stability
Skopje, 7 October 2022
The representatives of “Finance in Motion” and the Investment Fund for Green Growth emphasized that the appropriate setup of the policies conducted by the National Bank in the past period of the health crisis currently enables maintenance of the macroeconomic stability of the country, which is also supported by the stability of the banking sector. The setup of the regulation, the conduct of supervision and the taking of measures that enable macro-prudential stability allow the banking system to provide smooth and active support to economic flows. The meeting was attended by the Governor Anita Angelovska Bezhoska, together with her team, Tony Myron, President of the Investment Fund for Green Growth, Michael Neumar, member of the management of the Fund, Borislav Kostadinov, Director of "Finance in Motion" and Slaven Popović, regional representative of “Finance in Motion” to our country.
Subject matter of the meeting was the possibility of providing new credit lines to the banking system for encouraging the investments in renewable energy sources, energy efficiency and resource efficiency, but also the possibilities for intensified cooperation with the National Bank in the part of the activities it has been taking in the past few years in the field of green financing and climate risk management. These issues become increasingly important due to the energy crisis which has serious effects on our economy.
Discussing the current activities of the National Bank, the Governor Anita Angelovska Bezhoska referred to the efforts for an increasingly represented “green” component in the finance in the Macedonian economy. An example of this is the measure adopted by the National Bank Council last month with the Decision amending the Decision on reserve requirement, which encourages lending to projects related to domestic production of electricity from renewable sources.
The Climate Risk Survey, that the National Bank conducted at the beginning of 2022, shows that almost 90% of all banks and savings houses in our country consider that climate changes are an important source of risk for the financial stability, 40% have introduced new products and services in response to climate changes, while 80% of the respondents answered that they consider introducing such products. Green loans granted to the private sector in the first half of 2022 increased by 5.6% compared to the end of the previous year.
The Investment Fund for Green Growth, as an initiative of the European Investment Bank and the German Development Bank, supported by "Finance in Motion", is active in our country through bank financing and providing investments for project financing, as well as through technical support projects. So far, the Fund has provided financial support totaling Euro 41 million, including 22 earmarked projects for the local financial institutions in the amount of Euro 800 thousand in the form of irrevocable technical support.