The Federation of Trade Unions has published its September tally: 69,432 denars to cover the basic needs of a four-person household. In August the figure was 68,675. That is 757 denars more in one month - and rent is not in it yet.

Add a rented 60-square-metre flat and the sum jumps to 84,807 denars. Converted into the currency salaries are actually negotiated in, the basic basket runs above 1,120 euros a month. Where does the bulk of it go? Around 25,000 denars for food and drink, around 7,000 for education - school has started and the receipt shows it - and 6,379 denars for maintenance, water, electricity and heating.

Every month the unions send the same document, and every month the number is bigger. This has stopped being news; it is a calendar. The actual news would be a month in which the basket falls. Institutions read it the way they read a weather forecast: noted, commented on, nothing changed.

The unions are asking for a minimum wage of 600 euros. The opposition grabbed the report as ammunition: add rent or a mortgage payment, SDSM says, and the family bill reaches close to 90,000 denars - so parliament should pass their bill for a higher minimum. The opposition always defends the worker loudest when it is out of power. Was the basket any shorter while they sat in government?

On the street the views split, and that split describes the country better than any statistic. One man says he knows the prices by heart now and there is no end in sight. Another insists the Green Market is among the cheapest in Europe and that wages are fine if workers know their worth. The whole Macedonian economy lives between those two sentences.

The question no institution will answer with a figure: how many families in Macedonia actually take home 69,432 denars a month? Until that answer exists, the basket stays a statistic for some and a bill for everyone else.