Slovenia's finance minister resigns for 'personal reasons'

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia – Slovenia's Finance Minister Dusan Mramor has resigned citing "entirely personal reasons."

Mramor, 62, was considered one of the most influential members of Prime Minister Miro Cerar's center-left government.

Over the past two years, Mramor helped improve the country's financial health through a series of austerity measures.

In 2013, the small EU-member country narrowly avoided an international bailout of its banks. Under Mramor's control, the government managed to reduce the budget deficit to below 3 percent of GDP in 2015 and reduce high unemployment rate.

Mramor, a professor at the Ljubljana university, will be replaced by Development Minister Alenka Smerkolj until a successor is appointed.