While we keep hearing all the time how we are supposed to be the envy of everyone, the figures that reflect the real situation are much harsher. And as government action is aimed at burdening the economy instead of improving the business environment, entrepreneurs are also emigrating. Although it is well known that it is the economy that is the driving force of any country, the current government is apparently simply unable to listen to the needs of that economy. Meanwhile, on another continent, Argentine President Javier Milei is proving that it is economic freedom that brings positive results.
In May, the European Commission cut its forecast for Slovenia’s economic growth from 2.5 percent to 2.0 percent, and in June, the Bank of Slovenia cut its forecast from 2.2 percent to 1.3percent. At a time when Slovenia’s GDP was reported to have contracted by 0.7 percent on an annualised basis in the first quarter of this year, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) downgraded the economic outlook for Slovenia. It has downgraded its growth forecast for this year from 2.6 percent to 1.6 percent and for 2026 from 2.6 percent to 2.4 percent. Slovenia was ranked 46th out of 69 countries in the IMD competitiveness ranking. By comparison, the Czech Republic, which used to be the butt of many jokes, is ranked 25th.
Instead of the government ranks sounding all the alarms, they prefer to deal with ideological issues to deflect the problems, expand the state apparatus and, on top of that, keep working on inventing additional tax burdens (after the long-term care tax, they have now come up with a tax on undeveloped land), as if there weren’t enough of them already. “If for the second year in a row we do not achieve Slovenia’s expected economic growth of between 2 and 2.5 percent, this will mean lost years that we will not be able to replace,” warned Tibor Šimonka, President of the Slovenian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GZS) in June, who said that the Chamber is constantly warning and making proposals on how to improve the business environment in the most important segments of companies’ operations, where we are not competitive at all.
Slovenia would need to remove state regulation
“The economic indicators of Slovenia’s development show that we have completely neglected the economic aspect of development, as the IMD Competitiveness Ranking reminded us again this year, according to which Slovenia has drastically slipped by eight places in the last two years. In addition, we are also witnessing a decline in economic growth in Slovenia this year, which means that it is high time for the government to change its economic policy and to turn it in the right direction, i.e., in a positive direction,” pointed out the President of the Slovenian Chamber of Commerce, Mariča Lah, MSc, who warns that the economy is experiencing lower export growth, our productivity and private investment are stagnating, companies are moving abroad, and private consumption is realistically at the level of 2021, despite wage growth, due to caution and consumer uncertainty. As she stressed, the development focus should be “on a quality and stable regulatory framework by removing many bureaucratic obstacles for businesses, establishing a predictable tax system that will not negatively affect the competitiveness of our economy, reducing the outflow of purchasing power abroad”. She also believes that state regulation must be eliminated to ensure the smooth functioning of the European Union’s internal market, and that dialogue with the business sector is essential.
In Argentina, they operate in a diametrically opposite way
The Slovenian left, which looks for its role models in the dictators of Cuba and Venezuela, would undoubtedly be well advised to look instead to Argentina, which is proof of how unfiltered capitalism works without harmful state intervention. Indeed, Argentina achieved 5.8 percent annual growth in gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter of 2025, which is higher than China’s.
Namely, in December 2023, economic freedom advocate Javier Milei implemented a series of drastic “shock therapies” to prevent a complete collapse of the Argentine economy. This was necessary because his predecessor, the socialist Alberto Fernández, had left the country on the brink of hyperinflation and with almost no foreign exchange reserves.
Milei, who was labelled by the leftists as a pure populist and radical rightist for informing the people about the harmful effects of socialism on Argentine society and warning that the root cause of poverty in Argentina was the parasitism of a group of socialist politicians and trade unionists who lived lavishly at the expense of the hard-working and honest citizens and were destroying the once thriving economy, promised the people radical economic reforms, including the abolition of the central bank and the introduction of dollarisation. He promised radical deregulation, which was strangling the Argentine economy, the so-called ‘chainsaw revolution’ (the abolition of more than 300 regulations through major decrees, including the abolition of rent laws, the abolition of price controls and the abolition of so-called import licences, which socialists had used in the past to restrict imports from abroad and maintain domestic monopolies). He also advocated a radical reduction in the number of ministries and public sector employees, the abolition of bank controls, tax cuts of up to 90 percent, etc.
The numbers prove that Milei is clearly doing something right. Argentina’s economic activity grew by 7.7 percent in April compared to the same month last year, which is the biggest annual increase in about three years, Bloomberg reported. The result for Latin America’s third-largest economy exceeded the 6.6 percent growth forecast by analysts in a Reuters poll. Growth accelerated further from March’s 5.4 percent expansion. Most sectors of the economy recorded growth in April, led by the financial sector, which jumped by 28.4 percent, and construction, which recorded a 17.1 percent increase. At a monthly level, Argentina’s economic activity grew by 1.9 percent in April (you can read more about this in the following article: https://nova24tv.eu/world/economic-miracle-on-rio-de-la-plata-argentinas-economy-is-growing-faster-than-chinas/).
S. K.
