Weekly Review of Slovenian Business & Economy from 13 to 19 March

Ljubljana, 21 March - As a first country in transition to achieve this goal, Slovenia has joined the group of advanced countries by World Bank standards. An official document to that effect was signed this week as the WB president visited Ljubljana. Meanwhile, the country recorded the lowest economic growth in over a decade last year, namely 2.3%. Its GDP increased by 7.5% from 2002 to SIT 5,671bn, or EUR 24.264bn at the current exchange rate. By the end of May, technical criteria for the ERM II are to be met, with membership application to be filed by the end of 2004, the central bank governor said after returning from Frankfurt, the seat of the ECB.