SKOPJE (N. Macedonia), May 6 (SeeNews) – North Macedonia’s government is preparing a revision of the 2025 budget to support municipal projects requiring local budget adjustments and new tenders, prime minister Hristijan Mickoski said.
The budget revision is expected in late June to give the parliament time to call the upcoming local elections, Mickoski told a press conference streamed by the government on its YouTube channel on Monday.
North Macedonia will hold local elections in October.
The government earlier issued two calls to municipalities to support local development projects using a 500 million euro ($567 million) loan from Hungary’s state-owned Export-Import Bank, agreed in October. North Macedonia later borrowed an additional 500 million euro from the same lender to repay a maturing Eurobond.
The government posted a budget gap of 8.9 billion denars in the first three months of the year, compared with a 14.7 billion denars deficit in the same period last year, finance ministry data showed last week.
North Macedonia’s current budget projects a deficit of 41.3 billion denars in 2025, equivalent to 4% of the estimated gross domestic product (GDP).
($ = 0.882 euro)