North Macedonia Passes Budget Amid Political Recrimination

Parliament in North Macedonia on Sunday passed the budget for 2020, which the government insisted emphases investments in "human capital" through salary increases, while the opposition claimed it was no more than a "bribe" ahead of snap elections due in April.

The 2020 budget is the largest the country has adopted so far. Expenditure is projected at 3.9 billion euro, a 5-per-cent increase from this year, and revenue estimated at 3.6 billion euro, which is a rise of 5.6 per cent compared to 2019.

"This budget is focused on investment in human capital because, as a country, we face the biggest challenge of how to keep our citizens in the country and offer them a better quality of life," Finance Minister Nina Angelovska told the parliament.

The largest chunk of next year's expenditures, 2.5 billion euro, will go on salaries, pensions and other social transfers. Similar to this year, some 385 million euro will be spent on capital investments.

The plan is for the average wage next year to rise by 6.3 per cent, reaching an average monthly salary of around 500 euros, something that the Social Democrat-led government of Prime Minister Zoran Zaev promised at the start of its term.

But the opposition insisted that salaries were being hiked solely for election purposes, as the country is set for early general elections on April 12.

"This is the most populist budget ever. It is not focused on development at all," the main opposition VMRO DPMNE party complained during the parliamentary debate.

It accused the government of failing to increase the money for capital investment despite bloating the budget to a record level.

"Zaev has found money for everything - but not for the capital investments and the other infrastructure...