Slovenia to continue USD bond buybacks in 2018 - Erste

Strong investor interest towards Slovenian bonds is expected both locally and globally next year, the Erste Group said in a CEE public debt research paper.

The Austrian lender said that Slovenia's fiscal position should become even stronger in 2018-2019 as the government plans a budget surplus in both years, while the European Commission sees a balanced budget in 2018 and a surplus in 2019.

"Such developments should be supported by both positive cyclical movements driven by strong economic momentum and stable movements of the structural part of the deficit figure", Erste noted.

Erste added that it sees Slovenia's public debt on a downward trend, moving towards 70% of GDP through to 2019.

In September, Erste lifted its forecast for Slovenia’s economic growth to 4.0% in 2017, from 3.7% projected in August, on the back of strong domestic and external demand.

The forecast for Slovenia’s gross domestic project (GDP) growth in 2018 was raised to 3.3% from 3.2%, while a 3.0% increase is expected in 2019, Erste said at the time.