MK
Macedonia Country Dashboard – Annual figures update
2016 results: Growth is steady, investment is up, and unemployment continues to improve. ‘Ease of doing business released’ for 2017.
The five year average growth rate for real GDP in 2016 (2.5 per cent) is almost identical to the averages for 2014 and 2015 showing that Macedonia has been experiencing steady growth over the medium term. As a result GDP per capita has continued its steady increase (table 1).
Unemployment also continues to fall (23.7 per cent in 2016), however, Macedonia still ranks last among the peer countries in terms of unemployment. Among the peer countries only Bosnia, Namibia, and South Africa have unemployment in the 20th percentile range. However, unlike these countries, Macedonia is showing a steady decrease in unemployment since 2005.
Investment in Macedonia increased in 2016. Investment as a percentage of GDP increased by 9 per cent in 2016 to 25.2 per cent of GDP. FDI increased by 78 per cent to be 5.3 per cent of GDP. In contrast, Government spending decreased in 2016 by -5.8 per cent and is the smallest percentage since independence. The decrease in government spending may reflect the political situation in 2016.
Net exports increased by 10.3 per cent as exports grew faster than imports.
R&D as a percentage of GDP has been released for 2015, and showed a -14 per cent decrease from 0.52 per cent to 0.44 per cent.
The ‘Ease of doing Business’ rankings have been released for 2017 (Doing Business 2018). Macedonia has again posted a strong result and is now ranked 11th in the world, falling just one place from last year. From the peer countries, Georgia has risen from 16 to 9, overtaking Macedonia. Georgia has improved but Macedonia’s relative performance has fallen slightly across the key sub-categories of: starting a business (ranking fell from 4 to 22), dealing with construction permits (11 to 26), and getting electricity (29 to 53)