Skopje, 11 August 2025 (MIA) – All the factors affecting food prices are being analysed and we’re paying attention to what kind of measures will be taken. The government wants permanent rather than populist solutions, Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said Monday. 

Practice has shown us that margin restriction only spills over month after month before prices balance, he said adding: “It is a trap we want to avoid.”

Inflation is on the rise due to services, insisted the prime minister. 

“I expect the analysis we’re doing to be completed soon. We’re analysing every product, groups of products and services to get to a permanent solution. We’re presenting an ad hoc solution for September, the school basket. We need more time for a permanent solution. We don’t want populist measures, we want a permanent solution,” Mickoski said answering reporters’ questions in the Skopje Municipality of Petrovec. 

We’re following developments in the region, he noted. “July inflation almost everywhere is nearly 4-5 percent due to services. In the first six to seven months, the country is below the countries in the region due, mostly, to margin restrictions in March and April, which spilled over in May, June and July. Services so far are the biggest generator of rising inflation. It means increased salaries and pensions are making a pressure on demand. People can pay for the services and those offering them raise the price of services as long as the consumers are able to pay them. Excluding processed food and other products in the chain, we’re seeing that services are the biggest generators of inflation. Hospitality services, for example, have increased 24-25 percent compared to the same month last year as well as transportation services. Two-digit increase in fruit prices has been also registered,” explained the prime minister. 

In the first six months, Mickoski said, exports increased compared to imports.

He said he expected trade deficit to continue to drop.

“After a long time, in the first six months, exports increased compared to imports. Exports increased by 2.9 percent in the first six months compared to last year, and imports by 2.3 or 2.4 percent in the same period. For the first time in a long time, a trade deficit with foreign countries is being registered while the automotive industry is in the state it is in, and our export component mostly falls on the automotive industry. I expect such economic activity to continue in the coming period,” Mickoski said.

This past Friday, traders, producers and distributors had a meeting with Economy Minister Bear Durmishi over food prices. Speaking at a news conference, Durmishi said it was a final warning to them. Otherwise, the government will introduce strict measures, he warned. 

Photo: MIA