Standard & Poor's has lowered Slovenia's rating to A- from A due to a rising debt burden in order to rehabilitate state-owned banks and due to uncertain growth possibilities, Slovenian media said on Wednesday.
The ratings agency said the government's expected aid to state-owned banks to clean them from bad loans would increase the state debt by EUR 3-4 billion this year, in which case it would grow to 59 per cent of GDP in January 2014, more than initially predicted.
The agency also predicted that Slovenia would manage to reduce the budgetary deficit to 3% of GDP, but warned about political risks in the implementation of reforms after the government lost the parliamentary majority.
