BRDO PRI KRANJU: Slovenia's central bank currently sees no significant economic slowdown in the European Union, deputy governor Primoz Dolenc told Reuters on Thursday.
"For now it does not seem that the slowdown would be significant ... its effect is relatively low and we do not expect it will have a significant impact on the (ECB) monetary policy," Dolenc said on the sidelines of a banking conference.
He said in a speech there was international uncertainty regarding Italian debt, protectionism and the policies of US President Donald Trump.
"We have significant uncertainties in the international environment ... while banks are also facing challenges of technological changes, low interest rates and increased competition," Dolenc said.
Slovenian banks had "excellent liquidity" at present, he said, but pointed out that their profits in the past years were largely based on one-off events, namely a reduction of provisions for bad loans. Dolenc urged the banks to find ways to ensure profitability in the future.
Slovenia narrowly avoided an international bailout for its banks in 2013. They have reduced bad loans to 4.6 percent of all loans at the end of August, from about a fifth of all loans in 2013.
Comments
Comments are closed.