##forth, the disproportionality of the impact of the crisis pertains to the region, as well. let me use labor statistics to illustrate some important aspects of how covid affected women. first of all, in general, i can say that this crisis hit women more heavily than men, and this has come on top of the fact that women faced pre - crisis gaps in many respects on the labor market. couple of numbers in this segment. first, in our country the women employment rate declined by 1. 2 percentage points, while the men employment rate fell less than 1 percentage point, thus further widening the already wide gender gap of 18 percentage points, much higher than in the european union. that data show that only 38 % of the women work, which is significantly lower than the employment rate of men ( 56 % ). when we look at the unemployment rate, we see similar developments. initially unemployment rate increased more for women than for men. then, as a result of policy support measures, the unemployment rate gradually went back to the pre - crisis level in 2019. however, the adjustment in the unemployment rate is largely related to the increased exit of females from the labor force, illustrated with the fall of their labor force 1 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches participation rate. of course, this is not the case just in our country. it is a global phenomenon. it is a case in the whole western balkan region. for example, participation rate in the region on average declined by 1. 5 percentage points to 51 %, which is the lowest level since 2016, with a higher drop again for women than for men. thus the female participation in the western balkan region fell to 41 %, which means that only 41 % of the working age women are part of the labor force in comparison to the 63 % of men, although with large variations, from 52 % of women participating in albania, to 22 % of women participating in kosovo. 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. in addition, according to some studies, the makenzie study for instance, point out that pandemics have intensified the challenges that women already face at the workplace – doing double work shifts, being at work, being at home with family responsibilities, and find that 1 in 4 women consider downshifting their careers because of family responsibilities and new covid environment ( interruption in schooling and childcare ). these developments, such as lower employment and lower income, can negatively affect access to finance, to the financial system, especially banking system, as employment and income are one of the main criteria assessing the credit worthiness of the borrowers and can further amplify the risks or the challenges for women. let me mention couple of numbers. for the western balkan region, about 60 % of all borrowers from commercial banks are men and only 40 % are women. and even more, 64 % of all outstanding loans are extended to men. i think this number gives a flavor of the kind of challenges women face across the region. the access to finance is an important determinant, not only for the basic needs, but also for female entrepreneurship that lacks in the region in comparison to more advance economies. overall, all the numbers that were discussed, clearly point that unlike other previous crisis episodes, this one has definitely disproportionately affected women in many respects, additionally accentuating the challenges that women have faced even before the crises. particularly worrisome is the further increase of inactivity of women as the region faces shrinking working age