Skopje, 28 July 2023

The Quarterly Report for the second quarter of 2023 has been adopted

At its regular meeting, the National Bank Council adopted the Quarterly Report for the second quarter of 2023. The Report concludes that the annual inflation rate further decelerated during the second quarter, while the National Bank tightened the monetary policy to stabilize the inflation and took other measures, in line with other central banks. Regarding performances, the growth of the domestic economic activity accelerated, slightly faster than expected in the latest forecasts, while the latest high frequency data for the second quarter of 2023 indicate further growth of the economic activity, yet at a moderate pace. The annual inflation rate additionally decelerated and at the end of the second quarter accounted for 9.3%, which is in line with the April forecast.  The external position of the economy is improving, thus keeping foreign reserves in the safe zone. In the first quarter of 2023, the balance of payments current account registered a surplus, while the favorable developments in current transaction result from the positive performance in all categories, but mostly due to the reduced foreign trade deficit, primarily due to lower imports.  

Monetary data also show favorable movements.  The annual deposit growth further accelerates, and these performances improved compared to the April forecast.  Favorable movements continue in terms of maturity and currency structure of savings (growth in long-term and denar deposits), reflecting the effects of the measures taken by the National Bank and stabilized expectations of economic agents.  Banks continue to provide credit support to the domestic economy, yet the growth is more moderate and slightly better than expected.  Despite the performances, risks to economic prospects remain and are driven by the war in Ukraine, geopolitical tensions worldwide, the strength of the tightened financial conditions, as well as by possible further turmoil in the financial sector. The National Bank carefully monitors the macroeconomic data and risks and is prepared to use all the necessary instruments and to take measures that will contribute to maintenance of the stability of the exchange rate, stabilization of inflation expectations and to medium-term price stability.

At the session, the Council adopted the Annual Information on Payments in the Republic of North Macedonia in 2022, which confirms that the payments landscape in our country is characterized by increased use of payment services by citizens and companies for cashless payments for products and services in the country, provided by payment service providers. This period recorded 195 million payment transactions, which is an annual growth of 6.8%, almost entirely a result of the faster growth in number of credit card transactions by 13.1%. Therefore, their share in total number of cashless transactions reached significant 62.1%, amid simultaneous increase in the value of these transactions by 18.7%.