The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has called on Slovenia to take "decisive actions" to break a vicious circle of deep recession and high levels of non-performing loans, as the country prepares to bail out its beleaguered banking sector.

At the conclusion of its Article IV mission to Slovenia on Monday, the IMF said "cleaning up" and recapitalising banks was the "immediate priority", but warned that without further reforms, the recapitalisation would be little more than an "expensive stop-gap