History of Macedonia PDF

The large scale uprising took place on 2 August 1903 (Ilinden–"St. Elijah's Day") when the rebels took over the town of Kruševo and proclaimed a Socialist
Republic. After initial defeats of the local Turkish forces, the rebels were subdued by massive Ottoman attacks using scorched earth tactics and wholesale
massacres of the population over a three-month period. Europe and the United States paid attention and forced Turkey into granting reforms to be supervised by
international observers. However, the disillusioned IMRO leadership engaged in factional bloody feuds that weakened the IMRO organization and image. This
encouraged both Serbs and Greeks in the use of their own armed bands—Serbian Cetniks and Greek Andarte—creating an atmosphere of gang warfare in which
Bulgaria, Serbia, and Greece fought each other (instead of the Turks) over a future division of Macedonia. In the meantime, the Young Turks movement had
spread among Turkish officers and military uprisings began in Macedonia in 1906. These uprisings spread and Turkish officers demanded a constitutional system.
They believed that Turkey could be saved only by Westernizing. In 1908 the Young Turks prevailed, and offered to the IMRO leadership agrarian reforms, regional
autonomy, and introduction of the Macedonian language in the schools. However, the Young Turks turned out to be extreme Turkish nationalists bent on the
assimilation of other national groups. Their denationalizing efforts caused further rebellions and massacres in the Balkans. Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria, and
Montenegro turned for help to the great powers, but to no avail. In 1912 they formed the Balkan League, provisionally agreed on the division of Turkish Balkan
territory among themselves, and declared war on Turkey in October 1912 after Turkey refused their request to establish the four autonomous regions of
Macedonia—Old Serbia, Epirus, and Albania—already provided for in the 1878 Treaty of Berlin.
Balkan Wars
The quick defeat of the Turks by the Balkan League stunned the European powers, particularly when Bulgarian forces reached the suburbs of Istanbul. Turkey
signed a treaty in London on 30 May 1913 giving up all European possessions with the exception of Istanbul. However, when Italy and Austria vetoed a provision
granting Serbia access to the Adriatic at Durazzo and Alessio and agreed to form an independent Albania, Serbia demanded a larger part of Macedonia from
Bulgaria. Bulgaria refused and attacked both Serbian and Greek forces. This caused the second Balkan War that ended in a month with Bulgaria's defeat by
Serbia and Greece with help from Romania, Montenegro, and Turkey. The outcome was the partitioning of Macedonia between Serbia and Greece. Turkey
regained the Adrianople area it had lost to Bulgaria. Romania gained a part of Bulgarian Dobrudja while Bulgaria kept a part of Thrace and the Macedonian town
of Strumica. Thus Southern Macedonia came under the Hellenizing influence of Greece while most of Macedonia was annexed to Serbia. Both Serbia and Greece
denied any Macedonian "nationhood." In Greece, Macedonians were treated as "Slavophone" Greeks while Serbs viewed Macedonia as Southern Serbia and
Serbian was made the official language of government and instruction in schools and churches.
First and Second Yugoslavia
After World War I, the IMRO organization became a terrorist group operating out of Bulgaria with a nuisance role against Yugoslavia. In later years, some IMRO
members joined the Communist Party and tried to work toward a Balkan Federation where Macedonia would be an autonomous member. Its interest in the
dissolution of the first Yugoslavia led IMRO members to join with the Croatian Ustaša in the assassination of King Alexander of Yugoslavia and French Foreign
Minister Louis Barthou in Marseille on 9 October 1934. During World War II, Bulgaria, Hitler's ally, occupied the central and eastern parts of Macedonia while
Albanians, supported by Italy, annexed western Macedonia along with the Kosovo region. Because of Bulgarian control, resistance was slow to develop in
Macedonia; a conflict between the Bulgarian and Yugoslav Communist parties also played a part. By the summer of 1943, however, Tito, the leader of the
Yugoslav Partisans, took over control of the Communist Party of Macedonia after winning its agreement to form a separate Macedonian republic as part of a
Yugoslav federation. Some 120,000 Macedonian Serbs were forced to emigrate to Serbia because they had opted for Serbian citizenship. Partisan activities
against the occupiers increased and, by August 1944, the Macedonian People's Republic was proclaimed with Macedonian as the official language and the goal of
unifying all Macedonians was confirmed. But this goal was not achieved. However, the "Pirin" Macedonians in Bulgaria were granted their own cultural
development rights in 1947, and then lost them after the Stalin-Tito split in 1948. The Bulgarian claims to Macedonia were revived from time to time after 1948.
On the Greek side, there was no support from the Greek Communist Party for the unification of Macedonian Slavs within Greece with the Yugoslav Macedonians,
even though Macedonian Slavs had organized resistance units under Greek command and participated heavily in the postwar Greek Communists' insurrection.
With Tito's closing the Yugoslav-Greek frontier in July 1949 and ending his assistance to the pro-Cominform Greek Communists, any chance of territorial gains
from Greece had dissipated. On the Yugoslav side, Macedonia became one of the co-equal constituent republics of the Federal Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia
under the Communist regime of Marshal Tito. The Macedonian language became one of the official languages of Yugoslavia, along with Slovenian and SerboCroatian, and the official language of the Republic of Macedonia where the Albanian and Serbo-Croatian languages were also used. Macedonian was fully
developed into the literary language of Macedonians, used as the language of instruction in schools as well as the newly established Macedonian Orthodox
Church. A Macedonian University was established in Skopje, the capital city, and all the usual cultural, political, social, and economic institutions were developed
within the framework of the Yugoslav Socialist system of self-management. The main goals of autonomy and socialism of the old IMRO organization were
fulfilled, with the exception of the unification of the "Pirin" (Bulgarian) and "Greek" Macedonian lands.
All of the republics of the former Federal Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia share a common history between 1945 and 1991, the year of Yugoslavia's dissolution.
The World War II Partisan resistance movement, controlled by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and led by Marshal Tito, won a civil war waged against
nationalist groups under foreign occupation, having secured the assistance, and recognition, from both the Western powers and the Soviet Union. Aside from the
reconstruction of the country and its economy, the first task facing the new regime was the establishment of its legitimacy and, at the same time, the liquidation
of its internal enemies, both actual and potential. The first task was accomplished by the 11 November 1945 elections of a constitutional assembly on the basis of
a single candidate list assembled by the People's Front. The list won 90% of the votes cast. The three members of the "coalition" government representing the
Royal Yugoslav Government in exile had resigned earlier in frustration and did not run in the elections. The Constitutional Assembly voted against the
continuation of the Monarchy and, on 31 January 1946, the new constitution of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia was promulgated. Along with statebuilding activities, the Yugoslav Communist regime carried out ruthless executions, massacres, and imprisonments to liquidate any potential opposition.
The Tito-Stalin conflict that erupted in 1948 was not a real surprise considering the differences the two had had about Tito's refusal to cooperate with other
resistance movements against the occupiers in World War II. The expulsion of Tito from the Cominform group separated Yugoslavia from the Soviet Bloc, caused
internal purges of pro-Cominform Yugoslav Communist Party members, and also nudged Yugoslavia into a failed attempt to collectivize its agriculture. Yugoslavia
then developed its own brand of Marxist economy based on workers' councils and self-management of enterprises and institutions, and became the leader of the
nonaligned group of nations in the international arena. Being more open to Western influences, the Yugoslav Communist regime relaxed somewhat its central
controls. This allowed for the development of more liberal wings of Communist parties, particularly in Croatia and Slovenia, which agitated for the devolution of
power from the federal to the individual republic level in order to better cope with the increasing differentiation between the more productive republics (Slovenia
and Croatia) and the less developed areas. Also, nationalism resurfaced with tensions particularly strong between Serbs and Croats in the Croatian Republic,
leading to the repression by Tito of the Croatian and Slovenian "Springs" in 1970–71. The 1974 constitution shifted much of the decision-making power from the
federal to the republics' level, turning the Yugoslav Communist Party into a kind of federation (league) of the republican parties, thus further decentralizing the
political process. The autonomous provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo were also given a quasi-sovereign status as republics, and a collective presidency was
designed to take over power upon Tito's death. When Tito died in 1980, the delegates of the six republics and the two autonomous provinces represented the
interests of each republic or province in the process of shifting coalitions centered on specific issues. The investment of development funds to assist the less
developed areas became the burning issue around which nationalist emotions and tensions grew ever stronger, along with the forceful repression of the Albanian
majority in Kosovo.
The economic crisis of the 1980s, with runaway inflation, inability to pay the debt service on over $20 billion in international loans that had accumulated during
Tito's rule, and low productivity in the less-developed areas became too much of a burden for Slovenia and Croatia, leading them to stand up to the centralizing
power of the Serbian (and other) Republics. The demand for a reorganization of the Yugoslav Federation into a confederation of sovereign states was strongly
opposed by the coalition of Serbia, Montenegro, and the Yugoslav army. The pressure towards political pluralism and a market economy also grew stronger,
leading to the formation of non-Communist political parties that, by 1990, were able to win majorities in multiparty elections in Slovenia and then in Croatia, thus
putting an end to the era of the Communist Party monopoly of power. The inability of the opposing groups of centralist and confederalist republics to find any
common ground led to the dissolution of Yugoslavia through the disassociation of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Macedonia, leaving only Serbia
and Montenegro together in a new Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
The years between 1945 and 1990 offered the Macedonians an opportunity for development in some areas, in addition to their cultural and nation-building
efforts, within the framework of a one-party Communist system. For the first time in their history the Macedonians had their own republic and government with a
very broad range of responsibilities. Forty-five years was a long enough period to have trained generations for public service responsibilities and the governing of
an independent state. In addition, Macedonia derived considerable benefits from the Yugoslav framework in terms of federal support for underdeveloped areas
(Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro). Macedonia's share of the special development funds ranged from 26% in 1966 to about 20% in
1985, much of it supplied by Croatia and Slovenia.
In the wake of developments in Slovenia and Croatia, Macedonia held its first multiparty elections in November–December 1990, with the participation of over 20
political parties. Four parties formed a coalition government that left the strongest nationalist party (IMRO) in the opposition. In January 1991 the Macedonian
Assembly passed a declaration of sovereignty.
Independence
While early in 1989 Macedonia supported Serbia's Slobodan Milošević in his recentralizing efforts, by 1991, Milošević was viewed as a threat to Macedonia and its
leadership took positions closer to the confederal ones of Slovenia and Croatia. A last effort to avoid Yugoslavia's disintegration was made 3 June 1991 through a
joint proposal by Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, offering to form a "community of Yugoslav Republics" with a centrally administered common market,
foreign policy, and national defense. However, Serbia opposed the proposal.
On 26 June 1991—one day after Slovenia and Croatia had declared their independence—the Macedonian Assembly debated the issue of secession from
Yugoslavia with the IMRO group urging an immediate proclamation of independence. Other parties were more restrained, a position echoed by Macedonian
president Kiro Gligorov in his cautious statement that Macedonia would remain faithful to Yugoslavia. Yet by 6 July 1991, the Macedonian Assembly decided in
favor of Macedonia's independence if a confederal solution could not be attained.
Thus, when the process of dissolution of Yugoslavia took place in 1990–91, Macedonia refused to join Serbia and Montenegro and opted for independence on 20
November 1991. The unification issue was then raised again, albeit negatively, by the refusal of Greece to recognize the newly independent Macedonia for fear
that its very name would incite irredentist designs toward the Slav Macedonians in northern Greece. The issue of recognition became a problem between Greece
and its NATO allies in spite of the fact that Macedonia had adopted in 1992 a constitutional amendment forbidding any engagement in territorial expansion or
interference in the internal affairs of another country. In April 1993, Macedonia gained membership in the UN, but only under the name of "Former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia." Greece also voted against Macedonian membership in the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe on 1 December 1993.
However, on 16 December 1993, the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands had announced the initiation of the recognition process for
Macedonia and other countries joined the process, which resulted in recognition of Macedonia by the United States on 8 February 1994. In April 1994 the EU
began to take legal action in the European Court of Justice against Greece for refusing to lift a trade blockade against Macedonia that it initiated two months
earlier. However, by October 1995, Greece agreed to lift the embargo, in return for concessions from Macedonia that included changing its national flag, which
contained an ancient Greek emblem depicting the 16-pointed golden sun of Vergina. The dispute over the name of Macedonia remained, but the agreement
defused the threat of violence in the region.
On 3 October 1995, Macedonian president Kiro Gligorov narrowly survived a car-bomb attack that killed his driver. The next day, parliament named its speaker,
Stojan Andov, as the interim president after determining that Gligorov was incapable of performing his functions. Gligorov resumed his duties in early 1996. As
tensions between majority Albanians and minority Serbs in the neighboring Yugoslav province of Kosovo heated up from 1997 to 1999, fears mounted that fullscale fighting would spread to Macedonia. Ethnic violence erupted in the town of Gostivar in July 1997 after the Macedonian government sent in special military
forces to remove the illegal Albanian, Turkish, and Macedonian flags flying outside the town hall. Several thousand protesters, some armed, had gathered and
were in a stalemate with police. During the skirmish, police killed three ethnic Albanians and several policemen were shot. The Albanian nationalist Kosovo
Liberation Army also claimed attacks against two police stations in Macedonia in December 1997 and January 1998. As the violence mounted the United Nations
Security Council voted unanimously on 21 July 1998 to renew the UNPREDEP (United Nations Preventive Deployment Force) mandate another six months and to
bolster the contingent with 350 more soldiers.
When full-scale fighting in Kosovo erupted in early 1999 and NATO responded with air strikes against Serbia, Macedonia became the destination for tens of
thousands of Kosovar Albanian refugees fleeing from Serbian ethnic cleansing. For a while the situation in Macedonia remained tense as the government, fearful
of a spillover of the fighting into its territory, closed its frontiers to refugees. Nonetheless, the presence of NATO forces and pledges of international aid prevented
(aside from errant bombs and a couple of cross-border incursions) a spread of the fighting and maintained domestic stability in Macedonia.
However, in 2000, violence on the border with Kosovo increased, putting Macedonian troops in a state of high alert. In February 2001, fighting broke out
between government forces and ethnic Albanian rebels, many of who were from the Kosovo Liberation Army, but some were also ethnic Albanians from within
Macedonia. The insurrection broke out in the northwest, where rebels took up arms around the town of Tetovo, where ethnic Albanians make up a majority of
the population. NATO deployed additional forces along the border with Kosovo to stop the supply of arms to the rebels; however, the buffer zone proved
ineffective. As fighting intensified in March, the government closed the border with Kosovo. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees estimated that 22,000
ethnic Albanians had fled the fighting by that time. Fears in Macedonia of the creation of a "Greater Albania," including Kosovo and parts of Macedonia, were
fueled by the separatist movement, and mass demonstrations were held in Skopje urging tougher action against the rebels. The violence continued throughout
the summer, until August, when the Ohrid Framework Agreement was signed by the government and ethnic Albanian representatives, granting greater
recognition of ethnic Albanian rights in exchange for the rebels' pledge to turn over weapons to the NATO peacekeeping force.
In November 2001, parliament amended the constitution to include reforms laid out in the Ohrid Framework Agreement. The constitution recognizes Albanian as
an official language, and increases access for ethnic Albanians to pubic-sector jobs, including the police. It also gives ethnic Albanians a voice in parliament, and
guarantees their political, religious and cultural rights. In March 2002, parliament granted an amnesty to the former rebels who turned over their weapons to the
NATO peacekeepers in August and September 2001. By September 2002, most of the 170,000 people who had fled their homes in advance of the fighting in
2001 had returned.
Parliamentary elections were held on 15 September 2002, which saw a change in leadership from the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE party of Prime Minister Ljubco
Georgievski to the moderate Social Democratic League of Macedonia (SDSM)-led "Together for Macedonia" coalition. Branco Crvenkovski became prime minister.
At that time Boris Trajkovski was president; he had been elected from the VMRO-DPMNE party in 1999. In the September 2002 elections, former ethnic Albanian
rebel-turned-politician Ali Ahmeti saw his Democratic Union for Integration party (DUI) claim victory for the Albanian community, which makes up more than 25%
of the Macedonian population. Ahmeti, former political leader of the National Liberation Army (NLA), delayed taking his seat in parliament until December, for fear
it would ignite protests among Macedonians who still regarded him as a terrorist. Indeed, in January 2003, the DUI headquarters in Skopje came under assault
from machine-gunfire and a grenade, the fourth such attack on DUI offices.
The year 2004 was a rather tumultuous one for Macedonia, and Macedonians. In February, President Trajkovski, who was on his way to a conference in Mostar,
Bosnia, died in a plane crash. Two months later, elections were staged to replace him. Branko Crvenkovski, the acting prime minister and the leader of the ruling
Social Democratic Union of Macedonia, won the second round of the election, with 62.7% of the vote; his main opponent—Sasko Kedev of the VMRODPMNE—got 37.3%. In June 2004, Hari Kostov, the former minister of interior, became prime minister following approval by the parliament. His reign was to be
chaotic and short lived though—ethnic protests littered the country as parliament implemented legislation that gave Albanians more autonomy in the areas where
they predominated. In November 2004, Kostov resigned and his place was taken by the defense minister, Vlado Buckovski (who also took over the leadership of
the Social Democratic Union). In the summer 2005, the parliament passed a law that allowed ethnic Albanians to fly the Albanian flag in the areas where they
compose the majority.
GOVERNMENT
Macedonia achieved its independence from the former Yugoslavia on 20 November 1991, having adopted its constitution on 17 November 1991. Macedonia's
unicameral assembly of 120 seats is called the Sobranje. Eighty-five members are elected in single-seat constituencies, and 35 are elected by proportional
representation. The executive branch consists of the president (elected by popular vote for a five-year term) and the Council of Ministers (elected by the majority
vote of all the deputies in the Sobranje). The prime minister is elected by the assembly. In November 2001, parliament amended the constitution to include
greater recognition of ethnic Albanian political, religious, and cultural rights. In October 2005, the president of Macedonia was Branko Crvenkovski, while Vlado
Buckovski—the leader of the Social Democratic Union—occupied the prime minister post.
POLITICAL PARTIES
Following the 2002 elections, party representation in the Sobranje (Assembly) was as follows: the Together for Macedonia coalition (composed of 10 parties led
by the Social Democratic League of Macedonia and the Liberal Democratic Party—SDSM-LDP), 40.5% (59 seats); Internal Macedonian Revolutionary
Organization-Democratic Party for Macedonian Unity (VMRO-DMPNE), 24.4% (34 seats); Democratic Union for Integration (DUI), 11.9% (16 seats); Democratic
Party of Albanians (PDS), 5.2% (7 seats); Democratic Prosperity Party (PDP), 2.3% (2 seats); National Democratic Party (NDP), 2.1% (1 seat); and the Socialist
Party of Macedonia (SPM), 2.1% (1 seat). The DUI, PDS, PDP, and NDP are ethnic Albanian parties. The next legislative elections were scheduled to take place in
2006. The last presidential election was held in 2004 and Social-Democrat Branko Crvenkovski won a majority in the second round over his main opponent,
VMRODPMNE candidate Sasko Kedev. The next presidential elections were scheduled to take place in April 2009.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Macedonia's 85 municipalities form the structure of local government. (Out of these municipalities, 10 represent the greater Skopje area.) The municipality is the
basic self-managed sociopolitical community. Council members are directly elected for four-year terms, as are the mayors of the municipalities. Citizens may form
neighborhood (village and suburb) governing bodies. Where the number of members of a particular nationality exceeds 20% of the total number of inhabitants in
a municipality, the language and alphabet of that nationality shall be in official use, in addition to Macedonian and the Cyrillic alphabet.
The local elections held in April 2005 went without ethnic tensions, although international observers drew attention to irregularities during all of the three voting
rounds. Despite criticism, Prime Minister Buckovski considered the local election process to be a "model" for the future. The ruling Together for Macedonia
coalition won 36 mayoral races; the Albanian Democratic Union of Integration (a coalition partner of the former) won 15; the VMRO-DPMNE, 21; the VMROPeople's Party, 3; the Democratic Party of Albanians/Party of Democratic Prosperity, 2; the Macedonian Roma Alliance, 1; the rest of the seven mayoral seats
were won by mayors supported by a voter's bloc. Trifun Kostovski won the city of Skopje race over the candidate of the SDSM-led coalition—Risto Penov.
JUDICIAL SYSTEM
The judicial system is comprised of three tiers: municipal courts, district courts, and the Supreme Court. A Constitutional Court handles issues of constitutional
interpretation, including protection of individual rights. The constitution directs the establishment of a people's ombudsman to defend citizens' fundamental
constitutional rights; the office became functional in 1997. An independent Republican Judicial Council appoints judges, who are confirmed by parliament. The
Constitutional Court has not yet rendered any decisions in the area of protection of individual rights or liberties. The constitution guarantees the autonomy and
independence of the judiciary.
ARMED FORCES
In January 1992, the Macedonian Assembly approved the formation of a standing army of 25,000–30,000 troops. However, the actual size of the military was
10,890 active personnel in 2005, of which the army was the largest service with 9,760 active members. The army was equipped with 61 main battle tanks, 51
reconnaissance vehicles, 11 armored infantry fighting vehicles, 207 armored personnel carriers, and 944 artillery pieces. Although there is no data as to the
number of reservists, the nation's reserve forces were broken down in 2005 into eight infantry brigades and one (each) artillery, antitank and air defense
regiments. The army also operated a maritime patrol arm equipped with five patrol/coastal vessels. The air force had 1,130 active personnel which had four
combat capable aircraft made up of four fighter ground attack aircraft. The nation's paramilitary force consisted of a police force numbering 7,600, of which some
5,000 were armed. As of 2005, foreign forces stationed in Macedonia consist of 260 US personnel attached to KFOR 1. The national defense budget in 2005
totaled $129 million.
In March 1997, rioters in neighboring Albania looted government armories, making off with hundreds of thousands of AK-47 assault rifles. Substantial numbers of
those weapons were smuggled into Macedonia and sold to ethnic Albanians.
INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
The “Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” was admitted to the United Nations on 8 April 1993; it is a part of ECE and a member of several non regional
specialized agencies, such as FAO, IAEA, IMF, UNESCO, UNIDO, WHO, and the World Bank. Macedonia is also a member of the Council of Europe, the EuroAtlantic Partnership Council, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the NATO Partnership for Peace, and the OSCE.
In February 1994 Macedonia's sovereignty was recognized by the United States and EU countries. Greece objected to the use of the name Macedonia by the
nation and imposed a trade embargo for this and other issues. Greece and Macedonia signed an interim agreement in 1995 ending the embargo and opening
negotiations for diplomatic recognition. Also in 1995, Macedonia ratified the European Convention on Human Rights and accepted the jurisdiction of the European
Court of Human Rights. The convention includes several Eastern and Central European nations that see membership as a precursor to possible admission to the
European Union in the future.
In environmental cooperation, Macedonia is part of the Basel Convention, Conventions on Biological Diversity and Air Pollution, Ramsar, CITES, the Kyoto
Protocol, the Montréal Protocol, and the UN Conventions on the Law of the Sea and Climate Change.
ECONOMY
Although the poorest of the six former Yugoslav republics, Macedonia nevertheless can sustain itself in food and energy needs using its own agricultural and coal
resources. Due to the scarcity of arable land in the Vardar River Valley and other valleys in the west, expatriate employment in Serbia and Germany has become
more common.
In August 1992, because it resented the use of "Macedonia" as the republic's name and feared a hidden ambition to lay claim to the Greek province with the
same name, Greece imposed a partial blockade on Macedonia. Greece later imposed a full trade embargo against Macedonia in February 1994. This blockade,
combined with the UN sanctions on Serbia and Montenegro, cost the economy an estimated $2 billion by the end of 1994. Macedonia's per capita GNP fell from
$1,800 to less than $760 because of the sanctions and the Greek blockade. After threats of legal action by the EU, in October 1995 Greece ceased the embargo
and promised not to interfere with Macedonia's commerce.
From 1998 to 2000 real GDP growth averaged a little over 4%, but in 2001, in the wake of rising global tensions and a global economic slowdown, real GDP
growth fell 4.5%. Although 2002 saw an end to the contraction, growth was estimated at only 0.3%. Inflation had jumped to 6.1% in 2000, but moderated to
3.7% in 2001, and was projected at only 1% in 2002. Unemployment remains a serious problem. The official estimate for 2002 was almost 32%, with some 70%
of 15- to 24-year-olds without work. In 2001, agriculture accounted for about 10% of GDP; industry, 32%; and services, 58%.
In 2004, the GDP growth rate was 5.3%, up from 4.7% in 2003; by 2005 however, it was expected to fall to 5.0%. Inflation decreased to negative values in 2004
(-0.4 %), but overall it tended to hover around 1%. At around 37%, unemployment remains a big problem for the Macedonian economy, although many of the
seemingly jobless are thought to hold jobs in the informal sector. The economic growth is expected to remain steady over the next years, and will be fueled by
rapid growth in a series of key sectors: transport and telecommunications, trade and financial services. This growth will in turn spur an increase in domestic
demand, and a recovery of the industrial sector (especially steel production).