Skopje, 30 May 2023
“Undoubtedly, the priority of central banks is to stabilize inflation, which requires further conduct of prudent macroeconomic policies", Governor of the National Bank, Anita Angelovska Bezhoska said at the panel discussion of the Governors within the Summit of Governors of Central Banks, Ministers of Finance and Tax Administration Directors in the region, under the title "Financial and Monetary Stability of the Region in Uncertain Times of Prolonged Geopolitical and Economic Crisis", which is held in Montenegro.
Governor Angelovska Bezhoska said that from a historical perspective in dealing with this inflationary episode, globally, we are witnessing one of the most synchronized monetary policy tightening in the past half century, where the reaction of the central banks was twice as strong compared to the historical average. This is also characteristic for the countries of the region, which reacted through different instruments depending on the monetary strategy and the instruments they have at disposal. As a result of the reactions of the central banks, and with a drop in the prices of primary products, the total inflation slows down significantly and from its maximum of 14.3% in 2022 it is reduced to around 10% according to the latest data from April this year, although the core inflation shows a more pronounced inertness. This trend has been registered in the Macedonian economy, as well.
Regarding the future inflation movements in the regional economies, as small and open, she said that they will be conditioned by several important factors. The first is the permanence and magnitude of external shocks, that is, shifts in the markets of primary products, which we cannot influence on. Furthermore, an important factor will be the degree of sensitivity of the economies in the region to external shocks, which depends on the structural characteristics and the structural reforms undertaken to mitigate the vulnerability - something that cannot be changed in the short term, but can be in the medium term. In the end, prudent macroeconomic policies and their good coordination will be extremely important for further sustainable reduction of the inflation rate. With the help of persistence in the process of fiscal consolidation, fiscal space will be created, providing also assistance in coping with the inflation.
The Governor took part in the panel discussion titled “Maintaining the stability of prices and the banking system in uncertain times“, together with the Governors of the Central Banks of Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and the Vice Governor of Albania, Slovenia and Serbia.