The Commission however also expects the country's structural budget deficit will rise from 1.9% to 2.6% in the 2016-2018 period.

The 3% growth is almost twice as high as the EU and eurozone averages and comes after the Commission forecast last November 2.6% and 2.2% growth for 2017 and 2018, respectively.

Also upgraded slightly has been the public finance deficit forecast, with the Commission expecting 1.7% this year and 1.4% in 2018, which compares to 2% and 1.5% projected in the autumn forecast.

The deficit thus remains below the 3% of GDP threshold determined by EU rules and while the Commission stopped its excessive budget deficit procedure against Slovenia last spring, it said on Monday that "in structural terms, Slovenia's fiscal position is expected to worsen from 2016 to 2018".

According to the Commission, the country's structural budget deficit is to rise from 1.9% in 2016 to 2.1% in 2017 and to 2.6% in 2018, "mostly due to the large change in the output gap, which is projected to turn positive in 2017".