ECB Sees "Significant Budgetary Imbalances" in Slovenia
Frankfurt, 15 March
The European Central Bank (ECB) has found "significant budgetary imbalances" in Slovenia in its March bulletin on the economic situation in the eurozone, placing Slovenia among the countries which are "not yet in safe budgetary positions".
Slovenia is expected to meet its medium-term objective by 2009, but its updated stability programme points to "backloaded adjustment strategies with risks on the expenditure side," reads the report, which was published on Thursday. The 2006-2009 stability programme which Slovenia submitted to the EU at the end of last year envisages a general government deficit growing from 1.5% of GDP in 2007 to 1.6% the following year and dropping to 1% in 2009. The European Commission assessed the programme as plausible but lacking in ambition. It said most of the planned measures were geared towards 2009, which is why it called on Slovenia to take these measures faster, especially in light of the current strong economic indicators.