EU bank aid the 'last resort' for Slovenia

Slovenia's government is doing everything to avoid requesting eurozone financial assistance for its banks, amid worries about their finances, Finance Minister Janez Sustersic said on Friday. "That would be the last resource," Sustersic was quoted as saying on the sidelines of an EU finance ministers' meeting in Luxembourg by Slovenian news agency STA. "For the moment it seems Slovenian banks will not need aid from the European rescue funds." "If it proves possible -- and currently we believe it is -- to ensure private investors for our banks until the end of the year, we will not need such aid," he went on. Moody's already downgraded Slovenia's biggest lender Nova Ljubljanska Banka (NLB) and two others in April because of worries about bad loans weakening their finances. NLB is burdened by non-performing loans and needs a 320-million-euro ($400-million) capital hike by the end of June, according to the European Banking Authority (EBA). Severely hit by the global crisis, Slovenia is trying to consolidate its public finances with austerity measures aimed at cutting the public deficit to between 3.5 and 4.0 percent of GDP from 6.4 percent in 2011.