Washington, 14 October (STA) - The International monetary Fund (IMF) has downgraded its forecast for Slovenia's economic growth this year for a second time in a row to 1.1%. The economy is expected to expand by 2.3% in 2026.
The latest downgrade is down 0.7 percentage points on the April economic outlook and a 1.5 point deterioration from the forecast in October 2024. The 2026 forecast has been downgraded by 0.1 points from April.
It follows downward corrections by the government's economic think-tank IMAD and the EBRD.
The IMF's latest World Economic Outlook, released on Tuesday, projects for Slovenia's inflation to average 2.5% this year before slowing to 2.4% in 2026. It is expected to persist above the ECB 2% target, at 2.3% at the end of 2026.
The labour survey unemployment rate is projected at 3.8% this year, 0.1 point lower than projected in April but up from 3.7% posted last year, before climbing to 4% in 2026.
The current account surplus is now forecast to fall to 2.9% of GDP this year, which compares to 4.5% generated last year and 3.6% forecast for this year in April.
It is expected to stay level at 2.9% in 2026, a downgrade from the April forecast of 3.3% of GDP.
The new outlook was released as part of the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank, which are being attended by Finance Minister Klemen Boštjančič and deputy Bank of Slovenia governor Primož Dolenc.
