One Crisis on Top of Another – the case of North Macedonia
As everywhere in the world, it all started to deteriorate with the COVID-19 pandemic. Pre-pandemic real GDP growth of 3.9 percent in 2019 turned into negative real GDP growth of 6.1 percent in 2020. Economic recovery started in 2021 but it did not offset fully the decline from the previous year as the real GDP growth in 2021 equaled 4 percent. In 2022, economic growth amounted to 2.4 percent and 2.8 percent in the first and second quarter, respectively. Given the fact that the impact from the energy prices spike started to materialize in the real sector operations, it is not very likely at this moment that the real GDP growth of 3.2 percent, as projected by the finance ministry, will be achieved in 2022.