NEWS

Prime Minister Pahor attends 11th extraordinary session of the National Assembly

Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia attends 11th extraordinary session of the National Assembly on the supplementary budget for 2009.

 

Prime Minister Borut Pahor began by presenting the reasons for the second supplementary budget, which the Government prepared due to lower than expected income. He noted that the economic crisis deepened even further in the first quarter, with GDP dropping by 6.4% in real terms in the last few months. "The key reason for this drop is a decrease in export activity by 21.1% and investment activity by 23.6%. Both had been the main drivers of high economic growth in recent years. Private consumption stagnated in the first quarter, while the growth of government consumption was positive," explained the Prime Minister and added that the redistribution of expenditure in the new proposed supplementary budget is optimum regarding the changed circumstances.

 

(Foto: Daniel Novakovič/STA)

 

"The changed circumstances required a new, lower estimate of income in all public financing budgets and the maximum adaptation of expenditure, which, due to the nature of the budget supplement, is subject mainly to automatic stabilisation and less to the structural changes that were implemented to a greater extent by the first budget supplement," said the Prime Minister.