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Government guarantees and guarantees by public sector entities

The State may issue guarantees for the liabilities of legal entities from the public or private sectors to promote development in various areas. Acts regulating guarantees prescribe the basic elements of a guarantee, which is governed by a guarantee contract and a guarantee agreement.

Granting government guarantees

Government guarantees for public sector entities are granted in particular for projects of general public interest. These include projects relating to public infrastructure development, energy development, export activities, environmental protection, new technical and technological development projects, health, and education. Government guarantees for private sector entities help businesses obtain funding for prospective programmes and assist companies in difficulty.

Government guarantees are granted pursuant to the Public Finance Act, while annual quotas for government guarantees are set each year by separate acts governing the implementation of the central government budget; the State may also grant guarantees outside this quota where provided for by law.

Government guarantees do not constitute real liabilities but only contingent liabilities on the part of the Republic of Slovenia. Real liabilities only become effective when the primary debtor to whom the guarantor is the State fails to comply with its obligations within the agreed time limit.

Government guarantees 2018 - 2022

The outstanding of government guarantees declines between 2018 and 2022. In 2018 it amounted to 5.8 billion EUR or 12.7 % of GDP, while in 2022 it amounted to 4.5 billion EUR or 7.9 % of GDP. No government guarantees were issued in 2018 and 2019, while in 2020 there were issued in amount of 299.3 million EUR, in 2021 of 91.0 million EUR and in 2022 of 292.0 million EUR. The Republic of Slovenia receives commission from issued government guarantees: in 2018 13.5 million EUR, in 2019 11.3 million EUR, in 2020 9.7 million EUR, in 2021 8.1 million EUR and in 2022 7.2 million EUR. In the reported period, the Republic of Slovenia paid called guarantees: in 2018 there were no payments, in 2019 the amount of payments was 0.6 million EUR, in 2020 0.1 million EUR, in 2021 0.01 million EUR and in 2022 0.1 million EUR. The amount of accts receivable declines between 2018 and 2022, from 59.8 million EUR in 2018 to 36.5 million EUR in 2022. The amount of recived repaids was in 2018 2.5 million EUR, in 2019 0.9 million EUR, in 2020 2.3 million EUR, in 2021 1.8 million EUR and in 2022 1.2 million EUR.

Year (EUR million) 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
Outstanding 5,367.8 5,076.4 4,717.6 4,519.7 4,091.4
Outstanding in GDP 11.0% 10.8% 9.0% 7.9% 0.1
Issued 0.0 299.3 91.0 292.0 13.1
Paid 0.6 0.1 0.0 0.1 0.5
Repaids 0.9 2.3 1.8 1.2 0.4
Commission 11.3 9.7 8.1 7.2 4.7
Accts receivable 57.6 51.1 47.1 36.5 31.9

Guarantees by public sector entities

A public sector entity referred to in Article 87 of the Public Finance Act may issue a guarantee to other legal entities, which then constitutes its contingent debt. If the issue of the guarantees is not a statutory activity of this legal entity, the prior approval of the Ministry of Finance and a prior positive opinion of the line ministry must be obtained before the guarantee is issued. The issuance of a guarantee shall be considered a liability and is included in the debt of the legal entities referred to in Article 87 of the Public Finance Act.