Slovenia sees higher 2014 GDP growth as exports rise (updated)
21/11/2014 11:23
(Adds quotes, details, background)
By Marja Novak
LJUBLJANA, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Slovenia, which narrowly
avoided an international bailout last year, expects growth in
2014 to surpass the government's September forecast of 2
percent, Deputy Prime Minister Dejan Zidan said on Friday.
"We can expect economic growth this year to reach 2.4
percent based on high growth of exports," Zidan told a
conference of Slovenian and Chinese businessmen.
Slovenia has been in recession the last two years largely
because of a fall in domestic spending and investment.
Slovenia's export-oriented economy is focused on European
Union markets, which account for as much as 77 percent of the
country's foreign sales.
But the country hopes to reduce this dependence on EU trade
and Zidan said Slovenia wants to increase exports to China,
which at present represent only a fraction of Slovenian sales.
"I expect we could increase exports to China in the areas of
car parts, electrical equipment parts, tourism, food and wine,"
he said.
China's Deputy Prime Minister Wang Yang told the same
conference that China was ready to support private-public
partnerships that would develop Slovenian ports, airports and
energy firms.
Zidan said that although Slovenia wanted to keep state
control of its main port, Luka Koper LKPG.LJ , it could form a
partnership with China to expand Luka and the railway line
leading to it.
"Talks on this will continue in the coming months," he said.
Slovenia, which borders Italy, Austria, Hungary and Croatia,
was badly hit by the global crisis due to its dependency on
exports. It managed to avoid an international bailout last year
by pumping more than 3 billion euros of state money into local
banks which are mostly state-owned.
(Reporting By Marja Novak; editing by Zoran Radosavljevic and
Crispian Balmer)
((Marja.Novak@thomsonreuters.com; +386-8-205-63659; Reuters
Messaging: marja.novak.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
Keywords: SLOVENIA GDP/