Slovenia will soon issue government bonds worth 1 billion euros, which is one of the measures to overcome the financial crisis, and the funds to ensure liquidity in banks will be channeled through deposits and loans, particularly towards smaller banks, writes the Ljubljana newspaper “Dnevnik” in its business supplement on Thursday.
The newspaper adds that the Ministry of Finance and the central bank agree on the issuance of bonds, and the bonds will be issued by the end of this month. The paper states that this is a form of bridging the liquidity difficulties of banks until a measure recently adopted by parliament through amendments to the public finance law becomes operational, which involves issuing state guarantees to banks and other credit institutions up to a maximum of 12 billion euros for the end of this year, as well as for next year and 2010. This measure is not yet operational as its publication in the official gazette is awaited.
Due to the global financial crisis and the imminent end of the business year, it is currently very difficult to obtain loans on the European and global interbank market, the paper writes. The governor of the central bank, Marko Kranjec, stated that Slovenian banks, even if the financial crisis persists, have sufficient instruments to secure loans they receive from the European Central Bank (ECB) at fixed interest rates. The ECB offers loans in unlimited amounts on the condition that the banks securing them do so appropriately, as explained by the Slovenian central bank. (H)
