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Mramor said it was too late to make structural changes to the budget for this year, which is why the deficit will have to rise. The Finance Ministry will seek to find some savings at ministries, but these are expected to be limited.

The widening of the deficit will mean a jump from the planned 3.2% of GDP, which Slovenia pledged to the EU in official documents, to 3.4%. "Once we reviewed...all the numbers, we established that we could not achieve this deficit figure," Mramor said about the promise sent to the EU.

The main causes for the missed deficit goal is underestimated spending on interest and pensions. The former figure is EUR 151m higher than planned in the budget, while the latter surpasses the plan by EUR 124m.

He said that the supplementary budget will make around EUR 40m in spending cuts across several ministries. This will include cuts in spending on materials and the freezing of funds which have not been used on EU-backed projects.

Mramor said that the budget for next year will also have to be amended in the coming months, with the task expected to be more difficult than that for this year.

Slovenia has pledged to the EU that it will bring its budget deficit to below 3% of GDP, but without action the shortfall could balloon to 5% next year, he said.

In order to tackle the situation, the minister is proposing a mix of measures including better tax collection, cuts in tax breaks for emission taxes and a higher tax on financial services.

Moreover, he announced that the top income tax bracket of 50%, put in place on the highest income earners by the previous government as a temporary measure, will not yet be abolished.

But Mramor acknowledged there were multiple "unknowns" with regard to the 2015 budget, mostly notably stemming from lawsuits against the state.

Slovenia will thus have to compensate account holders of the defunct LB bank and it could face additional liability from holders of subordinated bonds in banks that were bailed in and nationalised, a case that is pending before the Constitutional Court.

In addition to tackling the deficit, Mramor also plans to stem the rising public debt, which is expected to reach a record 82.2% of GDP this year. "This is quite a high debt level, in particular if one takes into account the relatively steep interest rates."