Public economics

Deputy Transport and Infrastructure Minister Nikos Tachiaos stressed the need to redefine the framework of public-private partnerships (PPP), given the ambitious fiscal goals that the country must achieve, in an interview to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency on Saturday.

More than three out of every seven public contracts are awarded following procedures in which there was only one tender, and even when there is more than one tender the average per procedure is only 2.6 participants.

Women employed in the European Union are still earning 13 percent on average less than their male counterparts, the European Commission has said.

"This means that for every euro a man earns, a women will make only 87 cents," the commission said in a statement.

Looked at another way, women have to work more days in a year to attain the same annual salary level as a man.

The government does not mull adding new assets to the privatization portfolio, Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek has said.

The government has prolonged the community benefit programs (TYP) across 11 provinces within the earthquake-stricken regions, ensuring continued support for the unemployed registered with the country's employment agency İşkur.

She added that the opposition is against this law only because it was brought by Aleksandar Vui and the Serbian Progressive Party.

"Foreign investments have decreased by 50% over the past year, and this is a good litmus test," Kalin Slavov, executive director of Transparency International, told BNR before the presentation of the International Corruption Perceptions Index for 2021.

The share of global wealth of the world's richest people soared at a record pace during the Covid pandemic, a report on inequality showed on Dec. 7.    

Since 1995, the slice held by billionaires has risen from one percent to three percent, according to the World Inequality Report.    

This is the largest privatisation that has taken place in Greece

State auditors in North Macedonia have criticised the tender procedures during the pandemic, saying the process lacked due competitiveness.

For each ten procurements related to the health crisis last year, nine were carried out by striking direct deals with companies, the state audit office, DZR, said in its latest report published on Tuesday.