Let us remind you of the fact that Prime Minister Janez Janša recently achieved great success at a meeting with the EU leaders, and ensured an incredible 10.5 billion euros for Slovenia, of which 6.6 billion are grants. Thus, the total amount of funds for recovery and development in the coming years, especially in the first three years, will be sufficient. All of this means that we can look to the future with great optimism.
Coping with the COVID-19 epidemic has had a major impact on economic activity. The situation in April was the hardest, but after that, the economic growth indicators began to gradually improve. With the lifting of containment measures, a gradual revival of production has begun, and the situation on the labour market is also improving.
In Slovenia, a lot of credit for this goes to the government of Janez Janša, which, immediately after it began its term in March of this year, adopted the well-thought-out and strategically oriented measures. In doing so, it took care of the social security of the citizens, ensured the preservation of jobs and the survival of businesses.
In addition to alleviating the great social hardships of more than 300,000 retirees, tens of thousands of students, the self-employed, and large families, tens of thousands of jobs were also preserved.
We can look to the future with optimism
The measures that were introduced in the first legislative anti-corona package have proven to be effective. It is also important to note that Slovenian public finances are stable, and the banks are liquid. The fact that our response to the epidemic has been successful is also evidenced by the fact that Slovenia ranked in an exceptional 7th place among more than 160 countries around the world when it comes to dealing with the epidemic. All of this is also being recognized by the international markets. Slovenia has been receiving high credit scores, and thus, excellent conditions for borrowing. So far, the state has borrowed 2.7 billion euros under favourable terms, in order to mitigate the effects of the epidemic. And the government has also successfully maintained a stable state budget. The trust of the international financial and business circles also proves that the measures and the announced plans for action for the autumn months are a success. We will almost completely compensate for the consequences of this year’s epidemic as early as 2021.
We would also like to remind you that Prime Minister Janša has recently achieved great success at a meeting with the EU leaders, and ensured an incredible 10.5 billion euros for Slovenia, of which 6.6 billion are grants. Thus, the total amount of funds for recovery and development in the coming years, especially in the first three years, will be sufficient. All of this means that we can look to the future with great optimism.
Vida Kocjan