The National Bank of Republic of Macedonia Council held its first session today and discussed the latest Quarterly Report.
The National Bank of Republic of Macedonia Council held its first session today and discussed the latest Quarterly Report.
During the last quarter of the year, the monetary conditions remained unchanged, meaning, the maximal interest rate on the CB bills auctions remained at the level of 3.25%.
The inflationary pressures continued to lessen even more intensively in the last few months than expected. Apart from the overall inflation, the slowdown was evidenced also in the core inflation, which was in line with projected trends. The consumer prices growth in the fourth quarter reduced to 1.3% on an annual basis. Thus the average annual inflation for 2013 equals 2.8% and fully matches the projections.
The key macroeconomic parameters in the domestic economy generally coincide with the projections of the October cycle. Despite that the recovery of the foreign demand is slow in the first three quarters of the year, as well, the domestic economy registered solid growth again (annual growth rate of 3.3% in the third quarter) based on the specific factors, such as the entry of new foreign investments and the fiscal impulse. The performances in the real economy so far and the latest available data point to further solid economic growth on annual basis, and materialization of the projected GDP growth of 3.3% for the entire 2013. For the next period (2014 and 2015), according to the October projection, the economy will boost further, but at an accelerated pace, with a GDP growth rate of 3.7% and 4.4%, respectively being expected.
In the fourth quarter, the lending considerable speeded up, given a solid growth in the banks deposit potential, which was especially evident in the last month of the quarter. Also, there was a change in the lending structure in favor of credits to the corporate sector. These favorable developments indicate possible stabilization of the banks' perceptions of risks of placements in this sector, which can partly result from the monetary relaxation so far.
Within the external sector, the favorable performances contributed to a smaller decrease in the foreign reserves than projected, so the indicators of foreign reserves adequacy continued to be favorable, indicating a comfortable level for absorbing potential unforeseen shocks.
Generally, recent developments suggest a similar macroeconomic picture as in the October projections, given a balance of payments position that provides growth and maintenance of foreign reserves at an adequate level. The risks about achieving this macroeconomic scenario continue to be mainly external, and associated with possible changes in the dynamics of recovery of global economic growth and movements in the prices of primary products on the world stock exchanges.
At the meeting, the Decision on the general requirements for opening accounts in the National Bank of Macedonia was adopted, which enables harmonization of the procedure for opening and closing accounts pursuant to the amendments to the Law on Trade Companies and Law on One-Stop Shop System and Keeping a Trade Register and Register of Other Legal Entities.
The Council considered also other matters within its competence.