The Parliament adopted Saturday the budget 2011 with 64 votes in favor and 22 votes against. The weekend debate went in a peaceful atmosphere although the opposition MPs attacked the budget as a non-reform and non-development, contrary to the citizens’ interests. According to SDSM, the budget is the peak of the profligacy of the government, which invests in projects, such as Skopje 2014 instead of health or infrastructure.

Finance Minister Zoran Stavreski defended the government projections. In his view, the capital investments that the government increases as a budget item are going to benefit the citizens regardless of whether a highway or a museum is built. The state budget next year is going to weigh 2.6 billion euros. The economic growth has been projected at 3.5 percent, the inflation rate at 3 percent, the deficit at 2.5 percent of GDP and the foreign investments at 240 million euros. Next year too most of the money will be spent on public administration salaries as well as on purchasing goods and services. The Government did not accept any of more than 500 amendments that the opposition proposed.