Brussels, 14/11/2007 (Agence Europe) - The inflation rate in Slovenia is causing concern. When the Commission assessed Slovenia against the Maastricht criteria in May 2006 (see EUROPE 9193), the country's inflation rate was in line and, it seemed, sustainable, “but this is no longer the case today,” said Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia after the Eurogroup meeting on Monday 12 November. “This issue is of concern to us,” he acknowledged, and he said that rates of 3.5% this year and 3.7% next year were expected.
According to the Commission's recent economic forecast, Slovenia's performance in terms of growth (6% in 2007 and 4.6% in 2008) is positive and in exports is good, and public finances are approaching the medium term objective (it is expected that the Slovenian deficit will go from 0.7% of GDP in 2007 to 1% of GDP in 2008). “Unfortunately, inflation rates are higher than what we expected a year ago, before it joined the euro area,” Almunia said, responding to questions from the press. “We will have to pay lots of attention to this issue,” he added. Published reports show that the move to the euro has gone well in Slovenia (see EUROPE 9420) and that “the high inflation rate is not due to the introduction of the euro,” he said. Apart from this particular issue with inflation, which is a problem, “Slovenia is not a bad example for the other countries” hoping to adopt the euro, said Jean-Claude Juncker. (A.B.)