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Europe > North Macedonia, Republic of

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Cover IMF Working Papers
Monetary Policy Pass-Through to Interest Rates: Stylized Facts from 30 European Countries
Robert C. M. Beyer, Ruo Chen, Florian Misch, Claire Li, Ezgi O. Ozturk, and Lev Ratnovski
The extent to which changes in monetary policy rates lead to changes in loan and deposit rates for households and firms, referred to as ‘pass-through’, is an important ingredient of monetary policy transmission to output and prices. Using data on seven different bank interest rates in 30 European countries, different approaches, and the full sample as well as a subsample of euro area countries, we show that a) the pass-through in the post-pandemic hiking cycle has been heterogenous across countries and types of interest rates; b) the pass-through has generally been weaker and slower, except for rates of non-financial corporation loans and time deposits in euro area countries; c) differences in pass-through over time and across countries for most deposit rates are correlated with financial sector concentration, liquidity, and loan opportunities, and d) the effects of pass-through to outstanding mortgage rates on monetary transmission on prices and output are heterogenous across countries.
Keywords:
Monetary Policy Transmission; Monetary Policy Pass-Through; NFC loan rate; pass-through to rate; transmission to output; Deposit rates; Central bank policy rate; Mortgages; Loans; Financial sector; Europe
Cover IMF Working Papers
Emigration, Business Dynamics, and Firm Heterogeneity in North Macedonia
Ninghui Li and Thomas Pihl Gade
High emigration rates are a challenge in the Western Balkans. High emigration rates might lead to inadequate skilled labor and affect firm creation, capital formation, and economic convergence. The 2021 North Macedonia census reveals that more than 12.4% of North Macedonians live abroad. To assess the consequences, we estimate the impact of emigration on the number of firms and capital formation. Business dynamics can affect emigration reversely. To alleviate the endogeneity bias, we use a shift-share instrument with the historical diaspora networks and destination countries’ GDP growth rate as a source of exogenous variations. Our results show that (1) In the short run, a 1 percentage point increase in the emigration rate leads to a 2.91% decrease in the number of firms in the area of origin; (2) The long-run effects of emigration on the number of firms are less negative than the short-run impacts; (3) Emigration mainly reduces the number of micro and small firms; (4) Emigration affects the number of firms and capital formation more in the industrial sector than the other sectors, through the skilled labor shortage channel. This paper contributes to the literature on emigration and provides implications and policy considerations for developing countries, where high emigration rates are prevalent.
Keywords:
Emigration; Labor market; Firm dynamics; Capital formation; North Macedonia; Panel data.; emigration rate; business dynamics; firm Heterogeneity; emigration challenge; emigration effect; Migration; Unemployment rate; Industrial sector; Labor markets; Labor shortages; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Climate Change Mitigation and Policy Spillovers in the EU’s Immediate Neighborhood
Mr. Serhan Cevik, Mr. Nadeem Ilahi, Mr. Krzysztof Krogulski, Ms. Grace B Li, Sabiha Mohona, and Yueshu Zhao
EU’s neighborhood countries (EUN) have lagged the EU on emissions mitigation; coal-heavy power generation and industrial sectors are a key factor. They have also trailed EU countries in emissions mitigation policies since 2000, with little use of market-based instruments, and they still have substantial fossil fuel subsidies. Increasingly stringent EU mitigation policies are asociated with lower emissions in EUN. Overall output effects of the CBAM, in its current form, would be limited, though exports and emissions-intensive industries could be heavily impacted. A unilaterally adopted economywide carbon tax of $75 per ton would significantly lower emissions by 2030, with minimal consequences for output or household welfare, though a safety net for the affected workers may be necessary. To become competitive today by attracting green FDI and technology, overcoming infrastructure constraints and integrating into EU’s supply chains, EUN countries would be well served to front load decarbonization, rather than postpone it for later.
Keywords:
Climate change; carbon emissions; climate change mitigation; carbon tax; Europe; EU mitigation policy; EUN country; policy spillover; neighborhood country; Greenhouse gas emissions; Climate policy; Global
Cover Policy Papers
Review of the Flexible Credit Line, The Short Term Liquidity Line and the Precautionary and Liquidity Line, and Proposals for Reform
International Monetary Fund. Strategy, Policy, & Review Department
The Fund’s precautionary toolkit rests on the simple proposition that facilitating crisis prevention is far less costly than crisis resolution. Its value increases with systemic risk. Serial shocks to the global trading and financial systems pose significant and persistent headwinds for well-integrated emerging markets. An adequately funded global financial safety net (GFSN) with a suite of precautionary tools allows qualifying members to respond to balance of payments (BoP) shocks, reducing the incidence of crises and limiting contagion. The Fund is the only layer of the GFSN available to all members; other layers vary in their availability and externalities. In this context, the overarching objective of this review of the Flexible Credit Line (FCL), Short-term Liquidity Line (SLL), and Precautionary and Liquidity Line (PLL) is to ensure that the precautionary facilities toolkit (henceforth “the toolkit”) is fit for purpose for the challenges ahead.
Keywords:
Flexible Credit Line (FCL); Short-term Liquidity Line (SLL); Precautionary and Liquidity Line (PLL); Global Financial Safety Net (GFSN); PLL qualification assessment; FCL arrangement; SLL reform package; qualification assessment; FCL user; SLL access; SLL instrument; SLL Arrangements; Balance of payments need; Anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT); Liquidity; Debt sustainability; Global; Western Hemisphere
Cover IMF Working Papers
Energy Support for Firms in Europe: Best Practice Considerations and Recent Experience
Mr. Anil Ari, Philipp Engler, Gloria Li, Manasa Patnam, and Ms. Laura Valderrama
The surge in energy prices due to Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine significantly increased costs for European firms, prompting governments to introduce a range of support schemes. Although energy prices had eased by early 2023, uncertainty around prices remains unusually large. Against this backdrop, this paper examines the case for government intervention and identifies best practices with a view to improving the design of existing energy support schemes, facilitating exit from those schemes, and preparing policymakers for a downside scenario in which energy prices flare up again. The paper argues that support should be limited in size, strictly temporary in nature, narrowly targeted, and accompanied by strong safeguards and conditionality, while preserving price signals as much as possible to encourage energy conservation. Finally, the paper reviews recent support schemes introduced by European governments in light of the identified best practice considerations.
Keywords:
Energy prices; energy subsidies; financial support; price caps; energy crisis; Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; energy support scheme; price signal; best practice consideration; Annex II; support scheme; Energy pricing; Energy conservation; Fuel prices; Solvency; Europe
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Republic of North Macedonia: Informational Annex
International Monetary Fund. European Dept.
This paper highlights the Informational Annex on Republic of North Macedonia. The National Bank of the Republic of North Macedonia (NBRNM) participates in the foreign exchange market, in order to achieve the goals of the monetary and foreign exchange policies. The NBRNM implements the monetary strategy of targeting the nominal exchange rate against the euro. The intermediary objective of the monetary policy is to maintain a stable denar exchange rate. Thus, the NBRNM maintains a stable exchange rate within a narrow band of bid-ask exchange rates determined by the Committee for Operational Monetary Policy. The de facto exchange rate arrangement is classified as a stabilized arrangement. North Macedonia has accepted the obligations of Article VIII, Sections 2, 3 and 4 and currently maintains an exchange system free of multiple currency practices and restrictions on the making of payments and transfers for current international transactions. The first consultation with the Republic of North Macedonia was concluded in August 1993. The last consultation was concluded on January 22, 2020.
Keywords:
debt data; financial asset; liquidity data; public finance; IMF-World Bank collaboration; IBRD project; CPF objective; government of the Republic; Government finance statistics; External sector statistics
Cover Policy Papers
The Central Bank Transparency Code—Findings Of The Pilot Reviews
International Monetary Fund. Monetary and Capital Markets Department
This paper reports to the Executive Board on the outcomes of the Central Bank Transparency Code (CBT) pilot reviews. The pilot CBT reviews helped central banks evaluate their transparency practices and strengthen dialogue with external stakeholders. The CBT pilots provided valuable information on the resources required for the reviews going forward. Staff will continue to offer CBT reviews to the rest of the membership. The staff will report back to the Board in FY2026 on the progress of the CBT reviews and an update to the Code following five years of implementation.
Keywords:
CBT review; transparency practice; central bank Transparency Code; CBT Pilots; guidance note; Central bank transparency; Financial sector stability; Central bank autonomy; Financial Sector Assessment Program; Central bank accountability; Western Hemisphere; Global; Middle East and Central Asia
Cover IMF Working Papers
Inflation Dynamics in the Western Balkans
Gohar Minasyan, Ezgi O. Ozturk, Magali Pinat, Mengxue Wang, and Zeju Zhu
After trailing Euro Area inflation closely in the recent past, inflation in the Western Balkans has accelerated faster since early 2022 on the back of the shocks to global commodity prices, strong recovery from the pandemic, and lingering supply bottlenecks. This paper employs two complementary empirical approaches of an augmented Phillips curve and structural VAR, adapting them to the data availability and country specificities of the Western Balkans, to analyze the inflation dynamics in the region. It finds that international food prices affect not only headline but also core inflation as well as inflation expectations. Further, inflation in the Western Balkans is not just determined by foreign shocks, and domestic factors, aggregate demand shocks in particular, have a significant impact on inflation. These findings imply a possible role for policies to temporarily limit an immediate and complete pass-through of international to domestic food prices while also stressing the importance of an appropriate domestic macroeconomic policy mix to keep inflation expectations anchored and safeguard credibility in the face of high inflation persistence.
Keywords:
Inflation; Western Balkans; international food price shocks; commodity price shocks; Phillips curve; panel data; structural VAR; inflation expectation; inflation dynamics; inflations determinant; inflation development; inflation in the Western Balkans; Food prices; Energy prices; Nominal effective exchange rate; Global; Europe
Cover IMF Working Papers
The Future of PPPs in the Western Balkans
Mr. Jan Kees Martijn, Ms. Yan M Sun, William Lindquist, Yen N Mooi, Ezgi O. Ozturk, Hoda Selim, and Armine Khachatryan
Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) are increasingly an important vehicle for several Western Balkan countries to increase investment to reduce their infrastructure gaps. While there are benefits to well-designed and implemented PPPs, they also carry a potential for large fiscal risks and increased costs if not managed well. Countries with successful PPP programs typically benefit from a clear and well-designed PPP governance framework, which covers all stages of the PPP life cycle. Western Balkan countries need to address gaps in their PPP governance frameworks to fully reap the potential benefits from PPPs.
Keywords:
Infrastructure; Public-private partnerships; Western Balkans; governance framework; PPP procurement; PPP life cycle; future of PPP; PPP project; Fiscal risks; Public investment spending; PPP legislation; Risks of public-private partnership; Europe; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Labor Taxation in the Western Balkan: Looking Back and Forward
Mr. Alain Jousten, Mario Mansour, Irena Jankulov Suljagic, and Charles Vellutini
This paper examines how labor taxation (personal income taxes and social security contributions) in the Western Balkan contributes to labor market outcomes such as high informality and a significant gender gap in participation rates. We find that limited progressivity combined with high tax wedge on low incomes poses a major twin equity-efficiency challenge in the region, resulting in low redistributive capacity and inadequate incentives to enter the job market. Policy implications are discussed with a view to alleviating the excessively high tax wedges on low incomes, while improving progressivity of income taxation.
Keywords:
Western Balkan; labor taxation; labor tax wedge; personal income tax; corporate income tax; social security contributions; income taxation; SSC reduction; employer SSCs; Labor taxes; Tax wedge; Wages; Labor markets; Europe