Weekly Review of the Slovene Economy from 1 to 7 December

Ljubljana, 9 December - Despite obstruction of the opposition MPs, the act on the implementation of Slovenia's 2002 and 2003 budgets was passed by Parliament on Wednesday. On Friday evening the deadline for binding bids on the 65-percent stake in second largest bank Nova Kreditna banka Maribor (NKBM) expired, however the Finance Ministry did not disclose the number of bidders to the public. On Thursday, the government took a decision to sign the annex to the UMTS license contract with largest mobile operator Mobitel. According to the annex, Mobitel is to pay up the entire license fee in one installment of EUR 100 million. This way the 2001 budget will not have to be rebalanced.