Anita Angelovska-Bežoska

Anita Angelovska-Bežoska (born 5 November 1971 in Gothenburg) is a Macedonian economist who has been serving as Governor of the National Bank of North Macedonia since 2018. Previously, she served as Vice Governor of the National Bank in the period 2011–2018. She has also worked for the Ministry of Finance and the International Monetary Fund.

Angelovska-Bežoska began her career in 1996 as a financial system expert at the Ministry of Finance where she spent eight years of her career serving in various positions, first as the head of the Project for Establishing a Treasury System in the Republic of Macedonia (1999–2000), and then as the head of the Treasury Sector at this Ministry (2000–2003), making an exceptionally significant contribution to the implementation of key reforms in the public finance system in the country such as establishment of a single treasury account, establishment of a system for regular budget liquidity and liquidity management forecasting, improvement of budget accounting, development of the government securities market and improvement of budget reporting under the international standards.^[1]

Her contribution to the development of public finance in the Republic of Macedonia waс recogniсed and awarded by the US Embassy in Skopje in 2004. During 2003 and 2004, Angelovska-Bežoska was holding a position of State Secretary at the Ministry of Finance, as coordinator of activities of all sectors within the Ministry, coordinating European integration processes, budget reforms and negotiations with international financial institutions.^[2] In 2004, she was also the head of the team preparing Macedonia for the first credit rating.^[3]

Before joining the central bank team, she had a two-year work arrangement as an economist in the Department of Macroeconomic Policies in European countries and in the Fiscal Policies Department at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, D.C.. She also participated in several IMF negotiating missions to conclude arrangements with member countries.^[3] In the period from 2006 to 2018, she was constantly engaged as an expert in IMF teams that provide technical assistance to multiple countries in Europe (Latvia, Belarus, Moldova, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Albania).^[4]

Angelovska-Bežoska assumed the office of Governor of the National Bank on 21 May 2018, when the Assembly of Macedonia, with 81 votes "for", no votes "against" and no abstentions, declared support for the proposal of the President of the country for her to hold this highly responsible position.^[5][6] She became the first woman Governor of the National Bank of Macedonia.^[7][8] Previously, Angelovska-Bežoska worked at the National Bank for twelve years, first as Chief Economist and eight years afterwards as Vice Governor in charge of monetary policy, research and statistics. She was also voted for the position of Vice Governor in 2010 and 2017 with full parliamentary support, without a single vote against. As Vice Governor, she also served as Alternate Governor of the Republic of Macedonia on the Board of Directors of the IMF. She is currently serving as Governor for the Republic of North Macedonia on this IMF Board.^[9]

In 2019, Angelovska-Bežoska was also elected as a member of the Steering Committee of The Vienna Initiative 2.0, representing the six non-EU countries from the South-Eastern European region.^[10] Within the Vienna Initiative 2, she has played an active role in representing the interests of the region before representatives of international financial institutions and global and regional banks operating in these countries. She is also a member of the Irving Fisher Committee on Central Bank Statistics at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in Basel, Switzerland.^[11]

Since January 2025, Angelovska-Bežoska has been a member of the Single Euro Payments Area Steering Committee established by the European Commission, i.e. the Directorate-General for Neighborhood and Enlargement Negotiations of the EC, which established a Steering Group led by the Director-General Gert Jan Koopman.^[12]

Angelovska-Bežoska graduated summa cum laude from the Faculty of Economics at the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje in Skopje in 1994, after which she received her master's degree from the same faculty in 1997.^[4] She defended her doctoral dissertation in the field of economic sciences, prepared under the mentorship of Professor Ivan Ribnikar in 2015 at the School of Economics and Business in Ljubljana, Slovenia.^[3]

She authored multiple professional and scientific papers on monetary policy and macroeconomic policy, as well as on fiscal policy and public finance management. She has participated in a number of international research events and conferences in the field of economics.^[8] During her career, she has also worked as a lecturer at domestic and international educational and research institutions.^[2]

During 2003 and 2004, Angelovska-Bežoska was also a member of the Governing Board of the Health Insurance Fund of the Republic of Macedonia. In the period 2002–2004, she was first a member, and then the President of the Governing Board of the Deposit Insurance Fund of the Republic of Macedonia.^[9]

Angelovska-Bežoska is married and has three children: Petar, Sofija and Nadja.^[13]