Cash payments only up to EUR 500 – North Macedonia fighting gray economy

A ban on cash payments for amounts exceeding EUR 500 is in force in North Macedonia.

Purchasers of goods and services in amounts exceeding the said limit may use cards and bank account payments exclusively.

The limit has been implemented in the Law on Prevention of Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism in North Macedonia, which has come into effect. Finance Minister Dragan Tevdovski explained that cash payment restrictions were supposed to help fight the gray economy in the country.

– Gray economy involves illegal payments, to the detriment of all citizens. In order to suppress this, we had to further lower the cash payment limit – Tevdovski warned and reminded that the government had halved the limit from 2,000 to 1,000 euros in early 2019.

Tevdovski said that the previous instances of limiting cash payments had also produced results and that state and financial system institutions had shown that they are capable of carrying it out. The new lowering of the cash payment limit, he added, was announced by the state in early 2019.

Ministarstvo finansija Severne Makedonije

Dragan Tevdovski

Law on Prevention of Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism in North Macedonia

card payments

money laundering

fighting gray economy