Mramor named Europe's top finance minister of 2016
Ljubljana, 4 January - Finance Minister Dušan Mramor is Europe's best finance minister of 2016 according to the London-based magazine The Banker, which is owned by The Financial Times. The five Finance Minister of the Year 2016 awards celebrate officials around the world who have best managed to stimulate growth and stabilise their economy.
Finance Minister Dušan Mramor in this photo from December 2012.
Photo: Tamino Petelinšek/STA
Mramor was selected finance minister of the year for Europe due to his contribution to Slovenia's recovery from recession and stabilisation of the country's banking system, according to editor Stefanie Linhardt.
He was also honoured for continuing the privatisation process and implementing reforms aimed at consolidating Slovenia's public finances.
"As the economy bounced back to 3% GDP growth in 2014, Slovenia's finance minister, Dušan Mramor, kept a firm eye on the country's budgetary deficit - one of his main aims - from heights of 15% in 2013 it fell by 10 percentage points in 2014, with expectations for less than 3% in 2015 and 2.2% and 1.7% in the following two years," reads The Banker's press release.
Mramor is honoured to receive the title and sees it as an international recognition to Slovenia, according to the Slovenian Finance Ministry.
"Slovenia has managed to emerge from a deep financial crisis in just two years with a determined and smart economic policy. This would of course not be possible without exemplary cooperation of key institutions - the government, the National Assembly and the central bank," the ministry said in a press release.
Mramor was honoured as the top finance minister for Europe alongside Ram Sharan Mahat, former finance minister of Nepal (for Asia-Pacific), Alonso Segura of Peru (for the Americas), Ali Shareef Al Emadi of Qatar (for the Middle East) and Adriano Maleiane of Mozambique (for Africa).