Former Minister of Finance and Governor of the National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia, Petar Gosev, forgets that exactly when he was a finance minister, the unemployment rate set a record. In 2002 it was 31.9 percent (263,196 were filed as unemployed), and in 2003 the absolute unemployment record was set in the country – 36.7 percent or 315,868 people were unemployed.
All aforesaid is included in the analysis of the economy portal “Economic Leader”, released on the occasion of his participation in the debate titled “This home would leave Macedonia forever”, held on 19 February in the movie theatre Frosina. At the debate Gosev expressed serious allegations related to poverty and unemployment in the country.
“We are leaders in poverty. Poverty rate, the population rate under the poverty threshold is 19 percent on average for the period from 2002 to 2012. In Europe there is no country with such poverty rate. Bosnia and Herzegovina is the closest with 14 percent, Albania with 12 and Monte Negro with 6. We are leaders in Europe as for poverty rate. Now our statistics reports 28 percent but with young people it exceeds 50 percent”, Gosev said at the debate.
Still, the analysis of “Leader” underlines, “Gosev talks about poverty, but it seems he does not remember that when he was a minister of finance, according to the data of the State Statistical Office, it raised up to 30.2 percent in 2002 and 2003. On the basis of the latest information from the Statistical Office, the poverty rate in 2012 was 26.2 percent”.
Macedonia was struggling with FDI during Gosev’s term.
“Inglorious records of Gosev follow in a succession, with foreign direct investments (FDI) in the country as well. When he was sitting in the chair of the Ministry of Finance, in 2002 FDI of 77.89 million US dollars entered the country, and 96.29 million in 2003. For comparison reasons, in 2010 FDI of $211.61 million entered the country, in 2011 – $473.54 and 2012 was the worst of the past few years with $192.91 million, although much better compared to FDI during Gosev’s term as a minister”, “Economic Leader” analysis reads - its full version can be found on the Leader’s Internet site.
