Skopje, 07.07.2022 – At “Mother Teresa” University was organized a roundtable discussion with scientific experts in economics from our university and represented by the Economic Chamber of North-West Macedonia, who elaborated on the topic “The wave of price increase and the family budget in RNM”.
During the discussion the Rector Zeqiri emphasized that: “The family budget has been affected by the wave of price increases and poverty has increased, today poverty is over 22%, from this structure 8% are the working poor, 45% are unemployed, 7% pensioners and 32% other non-active people. Indicative is the increase in extreme poverty where over 3% of the resident population in the country lives today on $1.9 a day” – added Rector Zeqiri.
Rector Zeqiri says that “urgent government measures are needed to break the chain of poverty by paying financial aid to the poor and creating conditions for their employment”.
Bukurije Imeri Jusufi Ph.D., discussed about the topic “Basket of goods, price and wages” and emphasized that “in the structure of life expenses in the Republic of North Macedonia, the biggest part is food expenses with 40% during 2010-2022, while in European countries is around 19%. In addition to that, the increase in prices of existential products from 2021 to 2022 is 17%, which affects people’s life, but on the other hand the increase in prices is not followed with the increase of the minimum and average salary”, said lecturer Jusufi.
M.Sc. Ejup Abdullahi, a representative of the Economic Chamber of North-West Macedonia said that “the current situation of Covid-19 and the Russian aggression on Ukraine has affected us as entrepreneurs to find ourselves in a situation where the supply and sales planning is out of balance. Otherwise, the increase in the prices of the main resources for production, the increase in energy prices such as the price of oil derivatives, the enormous increase in electricity as the basis of operating expenses in transport and production, all these factors affect the regulation of the prices of final food products which weakens consumer power when our economy is based on consumption,’ says Abdullahi.
Rilind Ademi Ph.D., gave special attention to the topic “Factors influencing the increase in prices”, emphasizing that inflation is mainly an imported phenomenon and a consequence of an increase in prices in the energy sector and in the food sector. In addition to this, we can note that the fiscal and monetary policy was expansive during 2020 and 2021, which gave a boost to the return of local demand, and in the context of the breakdown of global supply chains, this has also given a boost to inflation as an economic phenomenon’ – said lecturer Ademi.
Lecturer Zana Beqiri Luma had research on “Consumer Price Index Structures” which presented the results of an empirical study regarding the determinants of inflation in the RNM for the time period 2005-2022”. The econometric model (ARDL) showed that domestic inflation is largely imported – an increase of 1 p.p. in the inflation rate of EU countries causes an increase of 0.9 p.p. in local inflation. Other relevant factors that determined the rate of inflation during this period were the base interest rate, the effective exchange rate and final consumption as components of aggregate demand.’ – said lecturer Luma.
During the discussion, the need for accurate and up-to-date data was emphasized as a prerequisite for rigorous empirical studies that would have provided well-informed recommendations for the development of state policies. Also, at this roundtable discussion special attention was given to the attendees by opening the interactive debate on the topic and issues which concerns our citizens on a daily basis.
