AS A political newcomer Alenka Bratusek has been thrown in at the deep end. A deputy for a year and prime minister for just three weeks, fate has dumped the worst crisis since Slovenia’s independence in 1991 in her lap. After Cyprus the question is whether her country will be next in the euro zone to need a bail-out. No, she says firmly. “We don’t need help. We just need time.”Ms Bratusek was speaking a day after the OECD rich-country club released a devastating report that talked of a deep recession and prolonged downturn, what it calls “weak prospects” for the economy and “mismanagement” of the country’s large state-owned banks. Yves Leterme, the senior OECD official presenting the report in Ljubljana, said that he had “no reason” to expect that Slovenia had “an immediate need for a bail-out.” That, however, clearly means he is not ruling it out for the future.Last year GDP fell by 2.3% and this year it is likely to shrink by 2.1%. Unemployment could reach 9.7%, over twice as high as in 2008 (just after Slovenia joined the euro). The population is aging. Almost 50% of GDP comes from exports, many of them to troubled neighbours such as Italy. Even so…
The Economist: Europe
