New Eurostat figures refute government’ s claims
Statement of Eleni Mavrou, member of AKEL Political Bureau
AKEL C.C. Press Office, 1st August 2015, Nicosia
Just a week ago the Minister of Finance stated that the positive evaluation of the Memorandum’s implementation is due to the acceleration of the Cyprus economy’s recovery and development. The reply was given yesterday by the figures released by the Ministry of Finance and “Eurostat” itself.
- In first half of 2015 the budget deficit amounted to 140.1 million Euros, compared with a surplus of 8.3 million Euros in the same period last year, while the primary surplus fell to 96.2 million Euros from 226.6 million Euros last year.
- The economic expectations in Cyprus declined by four units compared to the previous month, while in the remaining countries of the Euro zone it increased. In July it fell to 100.3 points from 104.1 units in June. In the Eurozone it rose to 104 units from 103.5 and in the EU to 106.6 from 105.5 points.
- With regards unemployment according to the data released by “Eurostat”, in June it rose to 16.2% from 16% in May, with Cyprus registering the third highest unemployment rate among EU countries after Greece (25%) and Spain with 22.5%.
- Cyprus holds the lead in household and business loans, which account for 263% of its GDP and exceeds by far the second largest private debt, that is to say of Luxembourg (195% of GDP).
These figures reflect that unfortunately neither the numbers, but nor the people are prospering in Cyprus today.
