Brussels, 04/09/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission refuses to comment about statements by the Slovenian government that because of problems with its banks, Slovenia is finding it difficult to roll over debt on the money markets. On Monday 3 September, a spokesperson for Economic and Monetary Commissioner Olli Rehn simply said that no official request for financial aid had been received from Ljubljana.
Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa said recently that his country might go bankrupt in October if it cannot roll over sovereign debt at reasonable interest rates. During the summer, the Big Three credit rating agencies downgraded Slovenia's credit rating. The country's economy shrank by 2.2% in the second half of 2012, compared with the second quarter of 2011 and Slovenia's public finances, which were in balance in 2007, are now running a deficit of 6.4% of GDP. The government is trying to set up a “bad bank” (like Spain, see EUROPE 10680) to buy up struggling banks' toxic assets and then sell them off at some point in the future when they have have picked up in value. The toxic assets in question might be around the €8 billion mark. (MB/transl.fl)