Macedonia's central bank has revised up its 2011 inflation forecast to 4.5-5 percent from originally planned 3 percent, central bank governor Dimitar Bogov told Reuters in an interview on Friday. "Inflation has been rising by 1 percent each month since the beginning of this year because of the prices of imported food and oil, and then stabilised at 5 percent in May," Bogov said.
"We have revised our inflation forecast for this year from 3 percent to 4.5-5 percent." He said inflation was projected to fall to below 3 percent in 2012 if the prices of the food and oil on the world market remain stable. In his first interview for foreign media since he took a job in late May, Bogov said that he saw the economy in the Balkan country steadily growing thanks to improved industrial output and exports, as well as to rising investment. "I think that we shall revise in July our estimate for the growth to around 3.5 percent from 3 percent," Bogov said on sidelines of a finance conference in the Montenegrin resort.
"The economy is recovering led by exports and investment and the main risks come from external demands and depend on the euro zone," he added. Bogov said that Macedonia, whose economy grew around 1 percent in 2010, saw a 15 percent rise in industrial output and exports up 40 percent in the first quarter. Investment, both private and foreign, were also on the rise, he said. "The foreign investment in the first quarter amounted to 203 million euro while we have had 230 million euro in the whole of 2010," Bogov said.