Panel discussion "Dignified Life or Survival"

The panel discussion was attended by the Deputy Prime Minister responsible for economic affairs, coordination of economic sectors, and investments, Fatmir Bitiqi; the Vice-President of the Council of the SSM for the Private Sector and the President of the SGIP, Ivan Peshevski, the President of the Assembly of the Organization of Employers, Angel Dimitrov, and the economic researcher Branimir Jovanovic. who prepared and presented the study "The impact of inflation on poverty in the Republic of North Macedonia", published by SIGA and FES.

In introductory remarks, Ivana Vuchkova, the project manager from the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, emphasized that the success of a state, which by definition should be "social," is not measured by individual personal achievements but by our collective commitments to address the challenges that affect us all and which can bring us a series of difficulties and individual downfalls, and that through no fault of our own.

The president of the Macedonian platform against poverty, Biljana Dukovska, in front of the present representatives from the institutions, the non-governmental sector and economic analysts, shared recommendations on what needs to be done to free societies from poverty, with the ultimate goal of completely eliminating poverty by creating conditions for everyone to live with dignity.

Economic analyst Jovanovic, while presenting the study, highlighted that extreme poverty in 2022 grew by about 14 thousand people, for 2023 it will decrease minimally in the best case, and in the worst case it will grow by an additional 14 thousand people. He indicated that moderate poverty in 2022 grew by 56 thousand people, for 2023 it will grow by another 21 thousand in the best case, and in the worst case by 101 thousand citizens. He pointed out that the reasons for these figures lie in the fact that the rise in prices surpasses the growth of people's incomes.

In conclusion, he stated that the Government should take measures to limit the rise in prices and increase incomes, and to reduce extreme poverty, all social expenditures—social assistance, child benefits, and pensions—should be increased in line with inflation. Furthermore, to reduce moderate poverty, wages in the public sector and the minimum wage should be increased by at least the inflation rate or alternatively, a special anti-crisis allowance should be introduced.

Deputy Prime Minister Bitiqi noted that if over the past three years the Government had not implemented the measures it has undertaken to protect the standards of the most vulnerable groups and then to preserve jobs, today we would have a worse picture. He stated that social-democratic policies have protected and will continue to protect standards and improve the well-being of all citizens.

The vice-president of the SSM Council for the private sector Peshevski emphasized that it's becoming increasingly difficult to live year after year, and the overall picture for the country 32 years ago is not good. This is because even as wages increase, more people are falling into poverty. "When the minimum wage started at 8,000 denars and went up to 20,000 denars, the purchasing power of citizens hasn't increased in proportion. Instead, it has decreased. Our minimum basket of goods, which we calculate as debtors, is almost 50,000 denars. This means that a four-member household needs to have a minimum and average salary just to survive, which translates to between 50 and 150 denars per day. This is not a situation to boast or complain about; instead, we need to figure out how to overcome all these challenges and ensure that all affected parties take a step forward, retaining the few young people in the country to continue building the economy, and then we can boast about increasing wages, even in the public sector," emphasized Peshesvski.

The President of the Employers' Association Assembly, Dimitrov, stated that in 2022, the minimum wage increased to 18,000 denars, reaching historically high levels relative to the average wage. "In conditions of inflation, solving the country's problems cannot be as simple as just increasing the minimum wage. However, I believe that the data for 2023 are very optimistic. Salaries are growing more than inflation, making pessimistic scenarios irrelevant. There is enough data indicating that 2023 will have a positive impact on reducing poverty. Inflation is a result of what happened in the past, primarily the COVID-19 crisis, followed by the war in Ukraine. Vice Prime Minister Bitichi stated at a meeting in the chamber that in 5 years, 130 million euros were provided to help the economy, which is four times more than before," said Dimitrov.