Total public expenditure in Slovenia stood at EUR 18.57bn, which is less than 0.3% of total public expenditure in the whole of the 28-nation bloc.

That amounted to EUR 6,701bn, said Eurostat.

Public expenditure expressed as a share of GDP in member states ranged from 35% (Latvia and Romania) to 57% in Finland, France and Denmark.

Per capita public spending in the EU was at EUR 13,153, while that in the Slovenia was just over EUR 9,000.

Despite remaining above the EU average in terms of public expenditure in GDP last year, Slovenia saw a 9.9 percentage point drop compared to the year before.

This was the second biggest drop in the bloc, behind only Greece.

Welfare amounted for 31.4% of Slovenian public spending (against an EU average of 40.2%), followed by economic stimulus at 24.2% (average in EU was at 8.8%) and health at 11.6% (EU average was 14.8%).