On December 6th, Slovenia's parliament approved budget plans to cut the deficit to 3 per cent of GDP next year, which the government sees as a key step to help the eurozone member avoid requiring an international bailout.
Parliament approved budget plans for 2013 and 2014, which aim to get the deficit down to around 3 per cent of GDP - the EU's official limit - in both years, from 4.2 per cent expected this year.
Public sector trade unions, which oppose the government's plan to cut the public sector wage bill by some 5 per cent, have said they may demand a referendum on the budget laws and stage a nationwide strike on December 21. "If the referendum demand is made, it will probably be rejected by the Constitutional Court very quickly", Finance Minister Janez Sustersic told reporters on Thursday, adding stalling the budget law would disrupt all budget spending.
In October, Slovenia managed to issue its first sovereign bond in 19 months, averting a bailout for at least six months, but bad loans in local banks, mostly state-owned, continued to rise and reached €6.7 billion at the end of September, equalling 19 per cent of the GDP.
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