Today we are proud to announce the signing of a Memorandum of Cooperation with the Fiscal Council of North Macedonia!

Our #collaboration will involve joint initiatives in areas such as fiscal analysis, sustainability of public debt, efficiency of public spending, monitoring of capital investments, and other related fields.

#FiscalCouncil #Finance #Accountability #Transparency

The post Memorandum of Cooperation with the Fiscal Council first appeared on Finance Think.

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A productive start to the week in Brussels! Reflecting on our initial activities and contributions to the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC). Our Executive Director Blagica Petreski met with colleagues and partners from Finance Think at the institutions of the European Union in Brussels, Belgium, on April 22, 2024.

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The post Finance Think with initial activities in the European Economic and Social Committee appeared first on Finance Think.

The proposal aims to contribute to the International Budget Partnership’s (IBP) objectives by fostering transparency in the country. This overarching aim is broken down into specific objectives involving concrete interventions on two fronts.

• Specific outcome 1: To advance data-driven policymaking.
• Specific outcome 2: To increase municipal transparency and strengthen citizen engagement, by making publicly available and updating 3-digit Budget data for all 80 municipalities in North Macedonia.

Donor / Partner: International Budget Partnership

The post Fostering critical debate in evidence-based budgetary processes and fiscal transparency first appeared on Finance Think.

The post Fostering critical debate in evidence-based budgetary processes and fiscal transparency appeared first on Finance Think.

Specific objectives include:

1. To identify drivers of low female participation in the labor market and female productivity, by producing evidence and generating knowledge;
2. To emphasize the importance of decent jobs, a stimulative environment, working conditions, and systemic support as drivers of productivity and women’s potential, by piloting measures at “Comfy Angel” and in collaboration with the business sector;
3. To stimulate policy dialogue among relevant stakeholders (policymakers, business sector, Federation of Trade Unions);
4. To advocate for policies that enable decent jobs and a stimulative environment that will boost female productivity.

Donor: British Embassy in Skopje

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The post In an interview for Lokalno.mk, Blagica Petreski speaks on current economic topics first appeared on Finance Think.

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The post Finance Think has become a partner of the International Budget Partnership first appeared on Finance Think.

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How much did the #food and #energy price crisis cost us?

How did the crises #constrain the fiscal space?

Our latest Policy Study 5⃣1⃣ 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: 1⃣. #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 2⃣. #increased investments in the energy sector, accompanied by improved energy efficiency on the consumer side.

Finance Think
ACIT
@ISSP.me

Center for Advanced Economic Studies – CEVES

Instituti GAP

CREDI

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Donor: The World Bank

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More at this link.

The post ⚠️ We continue our cooperation with Economy and Business, a prominent economic magazine first appeared on Finance Think.

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