By: Vida Kocjan
In April, Slovenia experienced the largest decline in industrial production, with a decrease of nearly 8%, while industrial production in the EU increased by 1%. The economy has been warning that such a significant drop in industrial production in Slovenia is a signal of insufficient measures in the energy sector. The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia has been pointing out declining trends since the beginning of the year, noting that industrial production in some sectors has declined by 10% to over 20% since November last year. Production has contracted in 13 out of 21 manufacturing activities.
The economy is therefore highly critical of the government’s leadership and warns of its lack of competitiveness. Given that a year ago, there were messages flooding the public that we would have allegedly the best “energy manager” at the helm of the government, subsequent events have proven otherwise. It turned out that Prime Minister Robert Golob is anything but a “top-notch manager”. This was already known earlier, as Golob, a trader, spent most of his career mainly reselling electricity from the state-owned nuclear power plant, at times offering it at dumping prices. However, such pricing is not a benchmark for excellence. With such prices, Gen-I’s profits should be in the billions, not just tens of millions of euros. The difference between the purchase and sale price of energy seems to have “disappeared” somewhere. The economy should have raised these issues earlier instead of allowing the myth of the best manager to be built. This is actually a loss for everyone, for them and for the citizens who fell for such fairy tales.
Such a significant reduction in industrial production is also a sign that things do not bode well for the future. Interestingly, Golob himself is aware of this, as he would not have said at a meeting with mayors that he will survive another term because he has savings, while he does not know how others will manage with their salaries. Mayoral salaries are not among the lowest, so one can imagine how others will fare during this period.
