The Western Balkan economies have faced numerous external shocks in recent years, while simultaneously becoming more integrated with the European Union. This paper employs a global vector autoregressive (GVAR) model to estimate the spillovers of real, financial, monetary, and global commodity...

The population of North Macedonia has been steadily declining over the past two decades and is projected to continue to decline into the foreseeable future due to emigration. This paper estimates an expected cost of the population decline on potential output growth of around 0.5 percentage...

This Selected Issues paper examines the expected costs of the population decline on potential output growth in New Macedonia. The IMF estimates that the population decline would create a drag on output growth of around 0.5 percentage points. Increased emigration, potentially driven by further EU...

The 2025 Article IV Consultation discusses that economic growth in North Macedonia is gaining momentum in an environment of increased uncertainty. A credible fiscal strategy is essential to rebuilding buffers, reducing debt and ensuring compliance with fiscal rules. This is key to maintaining...

The banking sector in the Western Balkan countries has changed dramatically in recent years. A variety of factors have contributed to these changes, such as economic growth, increased competition, and the implementation of new regulations. As a result, the profitability of the banking sector...

The overall objective of this joint country visit to North Macedonia was to discuss and review the advancement of a One Health approach against AMR through: the identification of strengths and weaknesses in the current national AMR strategies, action plans and intersectoral coordination...

This paper aims to explore the feasibility of establishing a digital participation bank in North Macedonia based on the principles of interest-free finance. This system has been part of ethical and equitable financial systems in the major Abrahamic religions. Thus, as interestfree finance...

Economic governance is a key aspect of the EU enlargement process, mirroring efforts in the EU to strengthen economic policy coordination and multilateral surveillance under the European Semester. The Annual Economic and Financial Dialogue with Regional Partners aims to prepare these (potential)...

Following the election of the new government in North Macedonia in June 2024, the World Bank Group prepared 16 sector-specific Policy Notes suggesting three focus areas to support faster, more resilient, and sustainable economic growth in North Macedonia