Slovenia sees public debt at about 83 pct of GDP by end of 2015 -finmin (updated)

Telekom Slovenije, D.d

21/01/2015 15:25

* Debt to fall in 2016 
    * Privatisation to continues 
 
 (Updates with quote, background) 
    By Marja Novak 
    LJUBLJANA, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Slovenia expects its national 
debt to rise to about 83 percent of economic output by the end 
of this year before falling in 2016, Finance Minister Dusan 
Mramor said on Wednesday. 
    The country, which narrowly avoided an international bailout 
in 2013, had debts equivalent to about 81 percent of gross 
domestic product in 2014. 
    Mramor also said the government was determined to pursue 
privatisation in spite of protests from an opposition political 
party and several civil society groups. 
    In 2013, Slovenia earmarked 15 firms for privatisation of 
which only three have been sold so far. Two more - telecoms 
operator Telekom Slovenia  TLSG.LJ  and the country's 
second-largest bank, Nova KBM (NKBM) - are due to be sold by the 
end of February.  ID:nL6N0UU429  
    "There is no democratic country in the world in which 
privatisation would not raise debate, but so far we are going in 
the right direction," Mramor told an economic conference. 
    The government plans to pass further privatisation plans in 
the coming months, and Mramor said the government will also 
restructure taxation in the country to reduce taxes on labour 
without increasing the overall tax burden. 
    Slovenia has been reluctant to privatise major banks and 
companies over the past decades so the government still controls 
about half of the economy. 
    In December 2013 the government had to pour more than 3 
billion euros in local banks, which are mostly state-owned, to 
prevent them from collapsing under a pile of bad loans and 
enable the country to avoid a bailout. 
    The country was badly hit by the global crisis which started 
in 2008 because of its dependency on exports. But its economy 
expanded by about 2.5 percent in 2014 after two consecutive 
years of recession, pushed up by higher export demand. 
 
 (Reporting By Marja Novak; Editing by Hugh Lawson) 
 ((Marja.Novak@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging: 
marja.novak.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: SLOVENIA DEBT/