(LJUBLJANA) - Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa said Monday the euro's launch in the small Alpine state had contributed to a surge in inflation in the country.

In comments that are likely to raise hackles in Brussels, Jansa told a news conference here that "high inflation is a problem for Slovenia."

Slovenia currently holds the rotating EU presidency.

The country's 12-month rate of inflation nearly doubled last year, hitting an annual average 5.7 percent in 2007 compared with 3.0 percent in 2006.

The introduction of the euro contributed around 0.6 percentage point of the pick-up in inflation, according to the Slovenian government's own estimates made at the end of last year, Jansa said.

The EU Commission had calculated that the euro launch boosted inflation in the country by just 0.3 percentage point.

But Jansa pointed out that Brussels' estimate dated back to April and was therefore no longer up-to-date.

The Slovenian premier said that "small prices in particular, in coffee shops and such like, have been rounded up. That is something we're not able to control or prevent."

However, he acknowledged that oil and food prices were also boosting inflation, as were problems of Slovenia's economic competitiveness.

The EU Commission rejects suggestions that the euro changeover has fuelled inflation.

In Novement, European Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia had said that Slovenia's inflation was "not clearly linked with membership in the eurozone" and was setting a bad example for other euro area candidates.

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