Slovenia

With excellent infrastructure, a well-educated work force, and a strategic location between the Balkans and Western Europe, Slovenia has one of the highest per capita GDPs in Central Europe, despite having suffered a protracted recession in 2008-2009 in the wake of the global financial crisis. Slovenia became the first 2004 EU entrant to adopt the euro (on 1 January 2007) and has experienced one of the most stable political transitions in Central and Southeastern Europe.

In March 2004, Slovenia became the first transition country to graduate from borrower status to donor partner at the World Bank. In 2007, Slovenia was invited to begin the process for joining the OECD; it became a member in 2012. However, long-delayed privatizations, particularly within Slovenia’s largely state-owned and increasingly indebted banking sector, have fueled investor concerns since 2012 that the country would need EU-IMF financial assistance. In 2013, the European Commission granted Slovenia permission to begin recapitalizing ailing lenders and transferring their nonperforming assets into a “bad bank” established to restore bank balance sheets. Export-led growth fueled by demand in larger European markets pushed GDP growth to 3.0% in 2014, while stubbornly-high unemployment fell slightly to 12%.

 Prime Minister CERAR’s government took office in September 2014, pledging to press ahead with commitments to privatize a select group of state-run companies, rationalize public spending, and further stabilize the banking sector.

$63.96 billion (2015 est.)

$62.17 billion (2014 est.)

$60.33 billion (2013 est.)

$42.77 billion (2015 est.)

2.9% (2015 est.)

3% (2014 est.)

-1.1% (2013 est.)

$31,000 (2015 est.)

$30,200 (2014 est.)

$29,300 (2013 est.)

27.5% of GDP (2015 est.)

26.8% of GDP (2014 est.)

25% of GDP (2013 est.)

hops, wheat, coffee, corn, apples, pears; cattle, sheep, poultry

ferrous metallurgy and aluminum products, lead and zinc smelting; electronics (including military electronics), trucks, automobiles, electric power equipment, wood products, textiles, chemicals, machine tools

4.9% (2015 est.)

916,000 (2015 est.)

12% (2015 est.)

13.1% (2014 est.)

13.5% (2012 est.)

23.7 (2012)

23.8 (2005)

40.7% of GDP (2015 est.)

-1% of GDP (2015 est.)

62.7% of GDP (2015 est.)

60.9% of GDP (2014 est.)

calendar year

-0.5% (2015 est.)

0.2% (2014 est.)

0.3% (10 September 2014)

0.75% (31 December 2013)

5.5% (31 December 2015 est.)

5.02% (31 December 2014 est.)

$11.82 billion (31 December 2015 est.)

$12.85 billion (31 December 2014 est.)

$26.11 billion (31 December 2014 est.)

$25.92 billion (31 December 2013 est.)

$25.2 billion (31 December 2015 est.)

$31.08 billion (31 December 2014 est.)

$6.87 billion (31 December 2013 est.)

$6.31 billion (31 December 2012)

$6.783 billion (31 December 2011 est.)

$3.118 billion (2015 est.)

$3.464 billion (2014 est.)

$28.09 billion (2015 est.)

$30.55 billion (2014 est.)

manufactured goods, machinery and transport equipment, chemicals, food

Germany 19.1%, Italy 10.6%, Austria 8%, Croatia 6.8%, Slovakia 4.7%, Hungary 4.4%, France 4.2% (2015)

$27.1 billion (2015 est.)

$28.94 billion (2014 est.)

machinery and transport equipment, manufactured goods, chemicals, fuels and lubricants, food

Germany 16.5%, Italy 13.6%, Austria 10.2%, China 5.5%, Croatia 5.1%, Turkey 4% (2015)

$961.8 million (31 December 2015 est.)

$1.016 billion (31 December 2014 est.)

$56.11 billion (31 December 2014 est.)

$55.45 billion (31 December 2013 est.)

$15.83 billion (31 December 2015 est.)

$14.73 billion (31 December 2014 est.)

$7.958 billion (31 December 2015 est.)

$8.178 billion (31 December 2014 est.)

euros (EUR) per US dollar –

0.885 (2015 est.)

0.7525 (2014 est.)

0.7634 (2013 est.)

0.7752 (2012 est.)

0.7185 (2011 est.)

Sources: CIA Fact Book, www.investslovenia.org