The International Monetary fund (IMF) has projected that Macedonia's economy will rise by two percent in these turbulent times of Europe's debt crisis and recession. This is not a big growth, but the highest compared to other regional states, Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski told reporters on Sunday.

"We will try with all measures and activities to surpass this projections. Our forecast is slightly higher, but close to that of IMF", said Gruevski after the start of construction works for enlargement and reconstruction of a Skopje boulevard.

According to him, in a time when many countries are saved by EU packages, governments fall, public administration employees are laid off, taxes are increased, pensions are cut, Macedonia is in the safe zone.

"One of the crucial things protecting us at the moment is the fact that the Government undertook a strategic step in 2007 and 2008 through the early repayment of debts. This step has proved to be one of the most strategic ones, even though we were not aware of the pending debt crisis", added Gruevski.

The PM emphasized that the debt was lowered from 40 to 26 percent of the GDP, whereas the steps undertaken in 2007 and 2008 yield positive effects today.