The government has set the budget expenditure ceiling for this year at EUR 10.16bn, up from EUR 9.70bn in the original plan, projecting a surplus of EUR 170m or 0.3% of GDP.

In late December the government broke down the budget by departments, raising the available funding for all ministries, except for the Finance Ministry, which was allotted EUR 2.614bn, down from EUR 2.767bn.

The Foreign Ministry was allotted EUR 90.46m, the Defence Ministry 503.94m, the Economy Ministry EUR 274.47m, the Infrastructure Ministry EUR 844.71m, Labour Ministry EUR 1.599bn and Education Ministry EUR 1.965bn, among others.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Bertoncelj said that the document had been agreed with all 44 budgetary users, and he was now presenting the document to the deputy groups of coalition parties.

The government is expected to adopt the supplementary budget on 24 January with the vote in parliament expected to be taken in mid-February.

Having already met all coalition deputy groups save for the Modern Centre Party (SMC), the meeting with which is due on Wednesday, Bertoncelj said he was satisfied with the talks.

It is not clear whether the minister has met yet with the Left, a partner to the minority government. A simple majority of those present is needed to pass the budget, which means the coalition's 43 votes plus those of two minority MPs would probably do without the Left.

Brane Golubović, the head of the deputy faction of the Marjan Šarec List (LMŠ), said he believed the budget would suffice for the implementation of the coalition's priorities such as healthcare and security.

Bojana Muršič from the Social Democrats (SD) welcomed additional funding for all ministries, saying that time had come to end with austerity in culture, education and science.

Like his coalition peers, Igor Zorčič from the SMC also expressed satisfaction with the proposal, but said that in meeting with the minister the party would be interested which projects would be prioritised by the departments.

The party will focus in particular on the priorities of the ministries of labour, infrastructure and health.

Franc Jurša from the Pensioners' Party (DeSUS) welcomed an increase in funds for vulnerable groups, and pensions, even though they would have wanted pensioners to get more but were aware of budget constraints.