In our case, about 46% of women participate in the labor force. Why activity rate of women on the labor market is low? According to a World Bank survey, about half of the inactive women reported that they do not seek employment because of family or caring responsibilities – twice the share of women stating this reason in the EU28. Another economic impact is also visible through the income channel. For example remittances, which are very important source of disposable income in the region including our country, plunged across the board last year. According to the UN study, the decrease was more prominent among women than men; especially among women in rural areas, and among women 35–44 years of age. Although wage data is still not available to see how the COVID crisis has affected this wage gap that existed even in the pre-crisis period, some indicators point out that probably the wage gap has widened throughout this period. For example, in North Macedonia assessment is that the wage gap has hovered throughout the range of 16–20%, which is already large. Apparently, the crisis has hit women and men unevenly, which is a natural consequence of the fact that it did not hit all the sectors equally. It had more pronounced effect on the services, especially services dependent on social interaction, and informal economy where women tend to be presented more. For example, in our country these sectors employ about 27% of all employed women and about 25% of all employed men.
At the same time, we had been charged with stabilising the financial sector, committing ourselves to take over a large portfolio of illiquid UBS assets. In addition, we concluded euro versus Swiss franc swap arrangements with the European Central Bank and the central banks of Poland and Hungary, to ease refinancing of banks that had granted mortgage loans in Swiss francs in these two countries. These swaps made it possible to counteract the rise in the Libor generated by an additional demand for Swiss francs outside our normal field of operation. The third stage began in March 2009. By then, price stability was threatened, not by the temporary inflationary escalation of 2008, but quite the opposite – the risk of a fall in prices over the coming three years. Since, by that time, our room for manoeuvre in the area of interest rates was limited, we decided to turn to unconventional instruments in order to bring about a further relaxation in monetary conditions. How has the economic and financial situation developed since our assessment in March? Global economic outlook Global economic activity declined more sharply than expected in the first quarter of 2009, especially in Europe and Japan. However, recent financial and macroeconomic indicators have shown a few encouraging signs. Stock exchange indices have started to edge up. Oil prices, which had been falling since July 2008, have been rising again since March. Risk premia in the money and capital markets have declined.