ECONOMY

Slovenia is towards the end of its period of rapid transition to a market economy following independence. This has not been painless, with the closure of heavy industries such as the steelworks in Jesenice and the coal mine at Trbovlje. The denationalisation programme is almost complete, but there are certain ownership disputes still to be resolved. That said, Slovenia is definitely in the strongest position of the ten new EU members. Per capita GDP (EUR 12,319 in 2003) is the highest of the ten and higher than in Portugal and Greece. Inflation is below 5% and falling, and unemployment has fallen to 6.7% (2003) from 9.1% in 1993 (according to ILO standards). The economy is now based on services and light manufacturing industry; Renault has an assembly plant at Novo Mesto, pharmaceutical companies such as Lek and Krka are performing well, the supermarket giant Mercator dominates the retail sector and is expanding rapidly into neighbouring countries, and year-on-year tourist numbers are steadily increasing. Overall, the position is healthy and the highly-educated workforce will enable Slovenia, which is scheduled to join the euro in 2007, to continue to develop.