Business
STA, 5 November 2018 - The central bank has recommended that retail banks impose stricter conditions on consumer loans, arguing that at the current pace of lending consumers could face problems paying back their loans if the economy turns sour.
In a macroprudential recommendation issued on Monday, Banka Slovenije said risks remained moderate and manageable, but consumer loans had been growing at a brisk pace for an extended period of time.
The pace of lending has been driven by factors including low interest rates, high bank capitalisation, low household debt and high employment.
While these trends are expected to continue driving high demand, loan maturity has been extending, often beyond the useful life of consumer goods that households are purchasing.
Banks in Slovenia told to reduce loan-to-value ratios
"Long maturity means that these loans will remain on bank balance sheets when the economic cycle turns, which, if macroeconomic risks materialise, may quickly lead to problems in the payment of these loans," the central bank warns.
Banks are therefore advised to keep loan-to-value ratios (loan payments relative to the client's annual income) to below 50% for persons with monthly income of up to EUR 1,700 and below 67% for those making more than that.
The central bank also recommends that new consumer loans should have maturities below 120 months.
The decision was reached "to prevent a loosening of lending standards and improving banks' resilience."
Formally, the new macroprudential recommendation is an expansion of the measure from late-2016, when the central bank advised banks to start reigning in mortgages. That recommendation remains in place.
STA, 5 November 2018 - Minister of Economic Development and Technology Zdravko Počivalšek is leading a Slovenian delegation to the China International Import Expo (CIIE) fair in Shanghai, which features 3,000 companies from 130 countries.
The ministry said the visit was designed to boost trade ties with China, enhance Slovenia's role in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), present measures to potential investors and boost cooperation in tourism.
The biggest BRI event this year, CIIE provides the platform to showcase a broad range of goods, services and industries. It is expected to attract more than 150,000 Chinese customers.
The fair is aimed at supporting liberalisation and globalisation of international trade and at opening up the Chinese market.
Sports also an important link between Slovenia and China
The participating Slovenian companies and institutions will showcase the country's potential as an innovative high-tech partner for winter sports.
The Slovenian delegation was invited to the fair by the Chinese Ministry of Trade after China recognised Slovenia as a potential partner in the runup to the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing.
The Nordic Centre in Slovenia's Planica has been selected as the European training camp of the Chinese men's ski jumping team.
In August this year, the Ljubljana Faculty of Sport and Beijing Sport University signed a memorandum on academic and scientific cooperation in winter sports.
In the first joint activity spurred by the memorandum, a bilateral forum on development of winter sports will be held in Beijing on 7 November.
The forum is based on a 2016 agreement on cooperation in sports signed by the respective ministries.
While in China, Počivalšek is due to hold bilateral meetings with Chinese government officials, to brief them on the state of Slovenia's economy and discuss bilateral cooperation in trade and investment.
The focus will be on cooperation in the Belt and Road Initiative and ways to boost trade, also through new forms of cooperation. The minister will also present the investment environment in Slovenia.
STA, 28 October 2018 - Winemakers in Slovenia are happy with this year's harvest, which according to official statistics is on course to be the best in Slovenia's history. A total of 128,347 tonnes of grape was picked or 8.2 tonnes a hectare, which is 45% more than last year and up 30% from the ten-year average.
The harvest of red grapes was slightly richer, with 8.6 tonnes picked per hectare until 5 September or 41,295 tonnes in total. Winemakers meanwhile picked 8 tonnes of white grapes per hectare for a total of 87,052 tonnes.
The harvest of late fruit varieties is also expected to be record high this year. The quantity of apples from intensive orchards is expected to be six times higher than last year's (81,193 tonnes) and 43% higher than the ten-year average.
In extensive orchards seven times more apples were produced than last year or 47,586 tonnes.
Pears also grew well, with 4,911 tonnes picked in intensive orchards, which is four times as much as in 2017. The harvest in extensive orchards is expected to be record breaking at 11,000 tonnes or 45.5 kilos per tree, which is 75% above the ten-year average.
The harvest of plums, blueberries and raspberries was similarly rich, exceeding last year's quantities several times.
The crypto world may have cooled down from the dizzy heights of December 2017, but Slovenia is still making news on the scene, if not for the various developments at BTC City, then for Monday’s announced sale of Bitstamp, the biggest Slovene success in the field to date.
Bitstamp has been purchased by NXMH, a Belgium-based investment company that is the European subsidiary of South Korea-based NXC, which invests in digital technologies. NXC also owns South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Korbit, and Nexon, a South Korean gaming company.
STA, 27 October - A survey by the International Federation of Robotics has shown that 144 robots were used in Slovenia per 10,000 workers in 2017, which is substantially above the European average. The car industry plays a strong part in this, with Slovenia even ranking 7th in the world when it comes to the share of robots in the auto industry.
STA, 29 October - The Pivovarna Laško Union brewery, which was established in 2016 with the merger of Laško and Union after the two were acquired by Heineken a year earlier, last year generated EUR 151m in net sales revenue, 1% more than in 2016. Net profit rose by 34% to EUR 15m.
STA, 29 October 2018 - Shares of NLB, Slovenia's largest bank, will be priced at EUR 51.50-66 in the forthcoming initial public offering of up to 75% of the bank minus one share, valuing the entire bank at EUR 1-1.3bn. The pricing, revealed in a prospectus released on Friday, is at the lower end of expectations but reflects the current market situation.
STA, 25 October 2018 - Group net profit at Telekom Slovenije dropped by 22% to EUR 23.5m in the first three quarters of the year, Slovenia's telecoms incumbent reported on Thursday. Sales revenue and gross operating profit (EBITDA) edged down 1% year-on-year to EUR 538.1m and EUR 153m, respectively.
STA, 24 October 2018 - The Financial Administration (FURS) has processed the data on international bank accounts of Slovenian citizens it had received by the end of September 2017 from the countries signatories of the relevant OECD agreement from 2014, and has issued on this basis a total of EUR 3.6m in tax requests.
STA, 24 October 2018 - The wood processing machinery maker Mebor from Železniki has won the annual Golden Gazelle Award for the fastest-growing company in Slovenia, conferred by the newspaper publisher Dnevnik. The winner is a family company whose roots trace back to 1982, and which today generated 95% of its sales revenue abroad.
