Cyprus economic growth to top 4 pct in 2017: FM

NICOSIA, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- Bailed-out Cyprus's GDP growth will overshoot revised projections to 4 percent this year, Finance Minister Harris Georgiades said on Friday.

Georgiades, in presenting next year's state budget to parliament, also announced that increased revenues beyond expectation this year have allowed the government to repay early an International Monetary Fund debt and will start repaying a Russian loan in 2018.

The 2.5-billion-euro (2.98 billion U.S. dollars) loan was made by the previous government in 2012, when Cyprus found itself shut out of money markets and appealed to Russia for assistance.

Early in 2013 Cyprus had to request the Eurogroup and the International Monetary Fund to save it from bankruptcy with a 10-billion-euro assistance package.

Georgiades cited data released on Thursday by the Statistical Service as saying that the brisk rate of this year's growth had a positive effect on public finances, which showed a 0.5-billion-euro surplus at the end of the first 10 months of the year.

"Total government revenue rose by 9.5 percent to 5.968 million euros at the end of October, compared to 5.449 million euros in the same period of 2016," said Georgiades.

"This has been made possible without increasing taxation. On the contrary, some taxes were cut or even done away with entirely," Georgiades added.

He said next year's budget provides for a revenue of 7.7 billion euros and an expenditure of 7.5 billion euros, leaving a surplus of 0.2 million euros.

"The 2018 is development oriented and is expected to sustain an economic growth of 3 percent for the next three years," Georgiades told a plenary session of parliament. Enditem