Press Releases & News
Macedonia To Repay $137 Million Of Its Debt Earlier Than Planned
World Bank Press Review, April 12, 2007
“Macedonia will repay $137 million of its foreign debt earlier than planned, the government said Wednesday. The repayment covers 20 percent of the country's debts to the World Bank and 6 percent of what it owes the European Investment Bank, said Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski…
‘This move shows that Macedonia runs good, safe and stable economic policies, and the early repayment of foreign debts reconfirms the success of the government's economic program,’ Gruevski said…” [Associated Press/Factiva]
Xinhua writes that “…Gruevski said on Wednesday that along with the $103 million that it had already paid to the Paris Club in March, Macedonia's external debts repayments have totaled up to $240 million. The repayments … will be funded by Macedonia's foreign currency reserves… Gruevski said that the early repayments of the debts, which are due in 2021, will save his country over $37 million [in] interest rates…” [Xinhua (China)/Factiva]
SeeNews reports that “…With the early debt repayment Macedonia will qualify as a low-indebted country, rather than a medium-indebted one which it is now, Makfax quoted Gruevski as saying…
The World Bank was Macedonia's largest single creditor with $639.5 million in January under the latest figures available from the country's central bank. The ex-Yugoslav state of nearly two million people owed $162.3 million to EIB in January…” [SeeNews (Bulgaria)/Factiva]
Dow Jones adds that Gruevski said savings from the early repayment “…will go toward development projects. Gruevski said other early debt repayments, to the International Monetary Fund and other institutions and governments, would follow…” [Dow Jones/Factiva]
