Slovenian cabinet adopts stabilizing budgets for 2014-15

New budget proposals for the next two years should be "stabilizing" and "bring fiscal consolidation" said the country's finance minister, even as a former prime minister and opposition leader called the plans unrealistic, dpa reported. Slovenia's government on Monday passed a revised budget for 2014 and a draft for 2015, envisaging a deficit of 2.9 per cent of gross domestic product for 2014. Slovenia aims to fully balance the budget by 2017, Finance Minister Uros Cufer said. Struck hard by the financial crisis, the country has struggled to curb spending and will run a 7.9-per-cent deficit this year. Its financial woes have raised expectations it will be the next EU bailout seeker. Cufer said that the budget will allow Slovenia to return to economic growth.