The new Policy Study 51 examines the fiscal space in the Western Balkans

⚠️ How much did the #food and #energy price crisis cost us?
⚠️ How did the crises #constrain the fiscal space?
Our latest 📖 Policy Study 5️⃣1️⃣ brings an overview and analysis of the fiscal space in the Western Balkans countries through recent crises: the COVID-19 pandemic and the food and energy price crisis.
📌 Moderate debt and partially stable budget deficits before the pandemic allowed Western Balkan governments to provide significant budgetary #support to cope with the pandemic crisis in 2020 and 2021.
📌 Although signs of recovery were visible in 2021, the fiscal space further #deteriorated as a result of the geopolitical conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
📌 Results indicate that the possibility of implementing fiscal #packages is significantly determined by the fiscal space created in non-crisis periods.
📌 It is necessary to build up budget #reserves during non-crisis periods to provide room for intervention when needed most.
📌 In 2022, #subsidies for household electricity in North Macedonia reached 3.2% of GDP or 9.2% of public expenditures.
📌 Findings suggest a decrease in spending on #healthcare and #social protection in favor of increased budgetary support for electricity subsidies.
📌 Findings point to the need for: 1️⃣. #reduction of electricity subsidies by the end of 2024, accompanied by direct transfers to the most vulnerable households, enabling fiscal space for more and higher-quality other public services, as well as 2️⃣. #increased investments in the energy sector, accompanied by improved energy efficiency on the consumer side.
Link to the full study: rb.gy/649l2e
The study was created with the support of SMART Balkans.
🇲🇰 Finance Think
🇦🇱 ACIT
🇲🇪 @ISSP.me
🇷🇸 Center for Advanced Economic Studies – CEVES
🇽🇰 Instituti GAP
🇧🇦 CREDI
WEBecon Network

Socioeconomic Assessment of Coal Communities in North Macedonia and Kosovo

The goal of the project is: 1) to assess the socioeconomic consequences (risks and opportunities) of transitioning out of coal for the communities directly and indirectly affected by the closure of mines and coal-fired power plants, and 2) to inform the design of local transition plans – that is, plans that addresses the distributional consequences of the mine/power plant phase-out while seizing the development opportunities for the affected communities.

Donor: The World Bank

The panel debate on tackling multidimensional child poverty successfully conveyed

🙋‍♀️🙋 Through created knowledge and dialogue with the relevant institutions, we prioritized policies to deal with multidimensional child poverty in the three sectors: social protection, health and education.

✍️ Measuring indicators for children is crucial for monitoring the effectiveness of measures and policies and for timely correction.

Child poverty is a multidimensional problem and requires a multi-sectoral approach.

The initiative is in partnership with UNICEF MK

Representatives of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education and Science, the State Statistics Office, the Bureau for the Development of Education and other institutions from the relevant sectors were actively involved.

More photos at the link: https://shorturl.at/rxyHW