Bloomberg: Toxic Loans Risk Slovenian Bond Rally: East Europe Credit

Uroš Čufer, Minster of Finance. Photo: balkaninside.com

(Bloomberg) Slovenia’s bond rally, the biggest among Europe’s former communist nations, risks faltering as a government budget dispute following the cleanup of toxic-bank loans threatens to unseat Prime Minister Alenka Bratusek.

Bratusek, the third premier since 2011, is trying to quell a challenge to her leadership and end a coalition quarrel that threatens to derail her deficit-cutting program after she spent almost 10 percent of economic output last year to clean up the nation’s banks, whose bad loans reached 11 billion euros ($15.2 billion). The government needs to boost revenue and overhaul state companies to sustain the fiscal improvement.

Read more:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-15/toxic-loans-risk-slovenian-bond-rally-east-europe-credit.html

The Slovenia Times: The Challenge Is to Continue with Reform, IMF and Slovenian Officials Agree

IMF HQ in Washington D.C.

(The Slovenia Times) IMF official Philip Gerson has assessed that the situation in Slovenia has significantly improved over the last year, but the country should continue with reforms and privatisation and as speed up the cleanup of its banks.

Read more:
http://www.sloveniatimes.com/the-challenge-is-to-continue-with-reform-imf-and-slovenian-officials-agree