Slovenian Prime Minister Alenka Bratušek reported to parliament on the measures of the public finance stabilization program and the national reform program, two key documents aimed at restoring macroeconomic stability and avoiding the need for international assistance.
Brussels will express its opinion on these measures on May 29. However, agencies report unofficial assessments that Brussels may consider the proposed measures insufficient.
Bratušek announced a gradual privatization of part of the state assets and a program to assist small and medium-sized enterprises through state guarantees ranging from 500 million to 1 billion euros.
According to the Slovenian Prime Minister, the clean Slovenian budget deficit at the end of the year will amount to 4.2 percent of GDP, and 7.9 percent of GDP if the funds for bank recapitalization are included. She added that Slovenia could have a budget without a deficit in 2017. The two primary goals of fiscal policy are to reduce the budget deficit to below 3 percent of GDP and to decrease public debt to 55 percent of GDP, although it will slightly increase in the coming years due to state guarantees of 4 billion euros intended for bank rehabilitation, Bratušek warned.
The so-called bad bank, to which part of the bad claims of commercial banks will be transferred, will receive bonds with state guarantees amounting to 4 billion euros instead of those claims, which will temporarily increase public debt that will gradually decrease in the coming years due to the funds the state will receive from privatization, the Slovenian Prime Minister stated.
