Macedonia reduced its debt to foreign creditors. Even though the cut is negligible, experts find it important because it comes after a lasting upward course of taking loans. The last official data from the Central Bank released a few days ago show that Macedonia's foreign debt by 30 June inclusive totals 2.12 billion dollars, which is a drop of 53 million dollars from end-2005.

In the first half of 2006, the foreign debt reached its maximum of 2.16 billion dollars in end-May and then fell to 2.12 by end-June. In only a month, it declined by some 32 million dollars. Macedonia's foreign debt reached is 7-year high of 2.18 billion dollars in end-December last year.

In the structure of the debt, the greatest portion, or over 1.31 billion dollars, is a debt to the official creditors, such as the IMF, the European Bank, IFAD, EUROFIMA, the World Bank, etc. Most of this amount it a debt to the World Bank's International Development Association (IDA).