Skopje, 8 February 2025 (МIA) — The country's foreign exchange reserves reached five billion euros at the end of last year, 50 percent more than pre-pandemic levels, National Bank governor Anita Angelovska Bezhoska said in Slobodna TV's morning show Saturday.

The central banker said foreign exchange reserves were the most important factor in maintaining the domestic curency stable. Despite recent crises, she said, the FX reserves kept growing and guaranteed the stability of the exchange rate.

According to Angelovska Bezhoska, the growth of FX reserves was mainly due to the central bank's continious purchases of foreign exchange on the forex market since mid-2023. "Over the past two years, our central bank has purchased 750 million euros," she said.

She noted that foreign direct investments had also contributed to the growth of foreign exchange reserves. Before the pandemic began, foreign direct investments amounted to about 3.5 percent of GDP and last year, they had reached 5 percent of GDP, she said.

Angelovska Bezhoska pointed out that not only were foreign direct investments important for the economy's foreign exchange potential growth but they were important for the investment cycle in general and for increasing income levels, which, unfortunately, were still low nationwide, she said. mr/