SKOPJE, July 8 (Reuters) - Macedonia's government plans to reshuffle the cabinet in an effort to combat the impact of the global financial crisis, a senior government official told Reuters on Wednesday.
The official said that the government will submit a list of candidates for new finance, education and agriculture ministers as well as a candidate for a new deputy prime minister to parliament later on Wednesday.
Vlado Pesevski, will be deputy prime minister in charge of the economy, Vasko Naumovski will be deputy PM in charge of European integration, Ljupco Dimovski is set to be the new agricultural minister and deputy PM Zoran Stavrevski will add the finance ministry to his portfolio, the official said.
He said parliament is likely to approve those changes next week.
"This is not a political crisis, it's a planned refreshment," he said.
"We focused on the economy especially because of the current crisis. We needed new men."
The planned reshuffle came after local media reported on Wednesday that Macedonia's education minister and agriculture minister resigned and the finance minister was dismissed. Last week the deputy prime minister in charge of EU integration quit.
The government said it will not issue any official statements before the parliamentary session next week. Macedonia's conservative coalition government led by Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski was elected in July 2008. It pledged to get the country's NATO and EU bids back on track while preserving a fragile ethnic peace.
But their efforts have been hampered by global economic turmoil and Macedonia is likely to move into recession this year with the economy expected to shrink by one percent. The latest figures from the State Statistics Office show GDP falling by 0.9 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2009.
Macedonia has so far not turned to the International Monetary Fund for a loan, but could still do so if the impact of the crisis deepens in the second half of 2009. (Reporting by Kole Casule; Editing by Ivana Sekularac and Louise Ireland)