Chamber
Slovenian GDP decreased by 0.8 percent in the first quarter of a year, which was A great negative surpriseas analysts expected a two percent annual growth. Among European countries, this is the largest drop comparable to the 0.7 % fall of Austria at the intermediate level, according to the Chief Economist of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Bojan Ivanc.
According to him, the European Commission in today’s reduced announcement, which promises us two percent economic growth this year, could not yet take into account the mentioned information for the first quarter. If this is the correct one, the two percent growth will also be too ambitious for the whole year.
According to Ivanc, the key reasons for our GDP fall are related to the fall in investments, the very modest growth of household consumption and the slight drops of exports. In household consumption, it is primarily surprised by the 2.5 % drop in sale of non-permanent products (food and drink), and by two percent the sale of permanent products (cars, etc.) decreased.
Construction investments have fallen by a tenth of a year, which is a great negative surprise in terms of expectations of flood restoration and investments from a recovery and resilience plan, as well as all construction work on rail and roads. Investments in transport equipment also shrunk by nine percent, and investments in other machinery and equipment stagnated. In full, investments were a very weak part of economic growth. Economic growth, on the other hand, has had a positive effect on supplies.
The growth of the country’s consumption has slowed in terms of last year, mainly due to the effect of the basis, because last year we introduced a mandatory health contribution. Exports of goods also dropped by 0.2 percent, and on the other hand, imports increased by percentage, which has a negative impact on GDP.
It was also a great disappointment of the service, especially tourist ones, which remained at a similar level, which was also influenced by the effect of the calendar, as the holidays last year fell more on March and this year to April, said Ivanc. A large, 20 % drop was also when exporting construction services, which is due to the decline in construction work across Europe. Below the line, all of the above contributed to the fall of GDP. Among the sectors, value added, by six percent, decreased in construction, and decreased by 2.5 percent in manufacturing.
Gorenšček: Changes in legislation lead to lower competitiveness
The fall of GDP is due to the fact that all changes to the legislation in the last two years have gone in the direction that Slovenia is losing its competitiveness, said the CEO of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Mitja Gorenšček.
According to him, at least ten laws and regulations have been adopted in the last two years, which have impaired the Slovenian business environment. First of all, the Personal Income Tax Act, which entered into force in early 2023, and then the Cross -Border Provision Act, with which we actually expelled some of the companies that provide services outside Slovenia as they have become uncompetitive.
Slovenia’s competitiveness is also impaired in the field of health care, including the additional burden on the economy for the disease and the introduction of a compulsory health contribution. These measures seem to be scared by foreign companies to move their business to other countries. The Chamber of Commerce and Industry is convinced that the law on long -term care, which already affects the behavior of companies, has similarly adverse effects. In their estimation, we have one higher tax burden in the Union and between the OECD countries, all of which, as they say, influences that our companies are fleeing to Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
« Despite numerous warnings, the government did not consider this and has not heard our applications to relieve labor costs and for relieving companies in terms of bureaucratic obstacles that are increasing. » Therefore, they propose to the government to study why we have found ourselves in this situation, and then « get in touch with the economy and employers, seriously listen to their comments. And that he finally understands that higher taxes and contributions do not always bring major inflows. ”Because if economic growth in the country is weak, higher taxes will not bring major contributions to public cash registers.
Gorenšček believes that “some of the corrective exams that the government has promised to us are possible. One of them is an audit of the Cross -border provision of services, here we have a solution and we would like to look at the neighboring countries that are the biggest competition. This is where the government’s response takes a very long time. The second is to revise the law of long -term care, which has been psychologically affecting companies for now, and on July 1, we will all feel its influence. «
At the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, they believe that we do not yet have an environment and services prepared and suggest a delay in the application for long -term care and its gradual enforcement.
They also point to the prices of energy, especially electricity, which after the crisis are becoming our competitive burden, especially for large customers. As a solution, they see relieving labor costs and accelerating investment, including the reconstruction of existing infrastructure and the construction of a third development axis.
They also point to unused cohesion funds where we are the worst after pumping. If the right measures were taken, this negative trend could be turned in the opposite, positive direction in the coming months, according to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
