Man Booker Prize winner Roddy Doyle and Goncourt Prize winner Marie NDiaye will headline this year's Slovenian Book Fair, with Hungary being featured as guest country.

Slovenia completed the first phase of privatisation of NLB, the country's largest lender, as it sold 59% of the bank in an initial public offering, with the option of extending the offer to 65%. The price was at the lower end of the range, EUR 51.5 per share, a boon to investors but also a cause of political criticism.

The parties commenting for the STA on the ongoing privatisation of NLB are rather unhappy with the sale, especially the price the country's largest bank has fetched. Some believe it would have been higher if NLB had been sold last year as planned, while others urge dropping the sale and sacking those responsible for it.

MPs adopted in a 44:5 vote on Friday the amendments to the social benefits act that will keep basic welfare allowance at EUR 393 also beyond 31 December 2018, making what was conceived as a temporary raise in April permanent.

Slovenia's exports of goods in the first nine months of the year amounted to EUR 22.9bn, which is 9.7% more than in the same period last year, while imports were up by 10.6% to EUR 22.4bn, the Statistics Office reported on Friday.

Slovenian Prime Minister Marjan Šarec will address the party congress of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) in Madrid on Friday as his LMŠ party is officially admitted into the group.