Off the wire
• Croatia looks for history repeating in Davis Cup  • Financing key to Ghana's water, sanitation SDG campaign  • Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has no plans to make his children his successor  • Roundup: EU, Ukraine wrap up summit with focus on reforms, visa-free regime  • Profits of Slovak banks to fall in next few years: central bank official  • SMEs make up 99.9 pct of business entities in Slovakia: official  • Mega-earthquakes preferentially occur on flat faults: study  • Albania launches national campaign to fight violence against women  • One in eight young people in Britain not in work, education or training: ONS  • British workers could face a decade of no pay growth: academics  
You are here: 　 Home

Roundup: Central Bank of Cyprus to revise upwards 2016 economic growth

Xinhua, November 25, 2016 Adjust font size:

The growth of the Cypriot economy this year, currently projected at 2.7 percent, will be revised upwards in the next Central Bank of Cyprus forecast in December, the central banker said on Thursday.

Central Bank of Cyprus governor Chrystalla Georghadji told the parliamentary economics committee that the economic growth reflects strong private consumption and investment.

"The economic momentum is expected to further strengthen, benefiting from the improvements in the competitiveness that has occurred in the recent years," she said.

Georghadji added that the economic recovery will continue in 2017 at the same level, benefiting both the banking sector and the government's financial position.

"The growth is sustainable because there are private investments, mainly in tourism, hotels, marinas and casinos," Georghadji said.

Finance Minister Harris Georgiades told a seminar on Wednesday that he expects growth this year to reach 3.0 percent.

Cyprus returned to growth at the end of 2015 following a deep recession since mid-2011 and a 10-billion-euro(10.56 billion dollars) bailout by the Eurogroup and the IMF that included the recapitalization of the eastern Mediterranean island's primary bank with depositors' money.

Georghadji said that the banks have recovered following the 2013 resolution of the banking system and can meet successfully the strictest regulatory guidelines, having corrected fundamental weaknesses in the financial system.

She added that although significant problems remain resulting from the high level of non-performing loans, the banks have managed to significantly reduce the burden of Emergency Liquidity Assistance by the European Central Bank and are now in a position to finance development.

Bank of Cyprus, the island's main lender, which had inherited an Emergency Liquidity Assistance burden of 11 billion euros when it was forced to take on the assets and liabilities of the wound down Laiki Bank, has brought it Emergency Liquidity Assistance debt down to 800,000 euros and expects to eliminate it entirely in 2017.

Replying to questions by deputies, Georghadji said Cyprus's gold reserves stand at 13.9 tons and is worth approximately 550 million euros.

"Three quarters of the gold is kept in a very reliable bank abroad," Georghadji said without going into details. Endit