The Slovenia Times

FinMin Expects EU Blessing for Budget

Nekategorizirano


"I think that we will get a positive reply once the document is closely examined," said Čufer, adding he did not expect that corrections would be needed, despite unofficial suggestions to the contrary.

Slovenia had to submit its 2014 budget for EU review by 1 October, with the Commission expected to present its assessments of the budgets of all eurozone members by mid-November.

Čufer stressed that the budget drafted by the government implemented the fiscal goals set for Slovenia, which is why he does not expect any complaints from the Commission.

But unnamed sources in Brussels have suggested that Slovenia could be contacted by the Commission as early as next week due to questions over the structure of the budget.

The sources suggest the Commission is concerned that the proposals for cutting the budget deficit are not sufficiently focused on cutting expenditure, especially current spending, and include too many cuts to investments.

In its efforts to eliminate the excess budget deficit by 2015, Slovenia was instructed by the Commission in May to reduce its budget deficit to 3.3% of GDP in 2014 and 2.5% of GDP in 2015.

As part of this goal, Slovenia will have to improve its structural budget balance by 0.5% of GDP each of the coming two years.

In the document drafted by the Slovenian government and currently undergoing parliamentary passage, the budget deficit would be cut to 2.9% of GDP next year and 2.5% in 2015.

Meanwhile, Slovenia and its ailing banking system are not on the agenda of the Eurogroup meeting in Luxembourg today.

The unnamed sources said that there was no new information regarding Slovenia that would require a debate or clarification from the Slovenian minister.

The Eurogroup is currently awaiting the results of stress tests of Slovenia's biggest banks, foremost the No. 1 bank NLB, which will determine the future course of action in dealing with Slovenia's ailing banks.

Share:

More from Nekategorizirano