Slovenia can't rule out EU bailout: minister

(LJUBLJANA) - Slovenia's government on Thursday warned that it could not rule out the need for a European bailout in future.

The banking system currently appeared to be "manageable with our own resources" and there was no "need to ask for EU help," the eurozone country's Finance Minister Janez Sustersic told journalists.

But he added that "if the problems of banks turn out to be bigger, if it turns out we were not aware of some of them (problems) or if new risks appear, then maybe in the following years something like that (an EU bailout) can't be ruled out."

Slovenia's largest bank NLB said Monday a state injection had allowed it to successfully raise its capital ratio to meet the the European regulator's capital adequacy requirements.

NLB said its core tier one capital ratio had been raised to 9.0 percent required by the European Banking Authority.

The European Commission on Monday approved for six months a 382.9 million euro ($494 million) capital injection into NLB by the Slovenian state so it could meet the capital adequacy ratio.