At today's 22nd extraordinary session of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia, the Prime Minister, Janez Janša, presented the 2007-2008 budget memorandum and a draft budget for 2008. He was optimistic about the future, as economic growth is high, inflation low, employment on the increase, and registered unemployment decreasing.
PHOTO: Primož Lavre/Salomon 2000
The PM outlined the basic facts underlying this year's budget debate. "The government's key goal in economic policy is to increase sustainable economic growth, and encourage employment, whilst raising the level of social security. With regard to the work done in the first half of this year, and the projections of the Institute for Macroeconomic Analysis and Development, I can determine that the Government has been successful in pursuing these goals." Mr Janša also stressed the fact that economic growth is high – in accordance with the forecast for 2006 (corrected by 0.5 percentage point), which remains the same for the 2007-2008 period. Inflation is also low, complying with the requirements for the adoption of the euro. Employment is increasing, while the registered unemployment rate is decreasing.
The PM compared the data to those for 2005. "We can see that in this period the government managed to improve each parameter. In 2005, economic growth was 4 per cent, employment growth 0.3 per cent, and the registered unemployment rate 10.2 per cent. The data for the first half of 2006 for all three categories are better," said Mr Janša.
The PM reminded MPs that the current debate was proceeding at a time when we are first encountering the new EU environment that we will compare against. "As of January 2007, we compete in a new environment – the most developed, yet the most demanding. Within the European Monetary Union, in the Eurozone, within the EU's informal circle which will host Slovenia as its thirteenth member. A comparison of Eurozone member states shows that with regard to GDP per capita, Slovenia ranks twelfth, followed by Portugal. According to real growth of GDP, Slovenia ranks third, preceded only by Ireland and Luxembourg, while with regard to inflation, our country ranks ninth, followed by Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain and Greece. Moreover, Slovenia is in third place with regard to government debt, followed again by Ireland and Luxembourg; fifth place on the unemployment rate scale (according to ILO), preceded by Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Austria; and third place according to real productivity growth, preceded by Luxembourg and Greece," said Mr Janša.
According to the PM, this data demonstrates how demanding the new environment is. "The data also show that our joining the European Monetary Union was not a gift, because we had to meet every one of the criteria. In terms of GDP, we are at the tail of Eurozone league; however, the majority of our development indicators promise us a relatively quick breakthrough. Personally, I firmly believe that we are doing very well, and that in the coming years, Slovenia will develop faster than at anytime before," the PM concluded optimistically.
