For the Government growth means the enrichment of the privileged few

Statement by the Head of the Economic Research Bureau of the C.C. of AKEL Haris Polycarpou

AKEL C.C. Press Office, 17 December 2018, Nicosia

The sixth State Budget submitted by the Anastasiades-DISY Government has once again no vision and offers no prospects for society.

It is without any significant changes with expenditure on growth and development remaining fixed, despite the fact that everyone stresses the need to change the development model.

It is a budget with limited social spending, at the levels of previous years, while one third of the population is on the poverty line with 50,000 of them being young people.

It is a budget that fails to address rising income inequalities, at the same time as the total income of the economy continues to grow, because according to the Government growth means the enrichment of the few and privileged.

It is a budget that reflects the general economic philosophy of the Anastasiades – DISY government; a philosophy that keeps working people’s wages down, especially in the private sector, while the benefits of growth are channeled to increasingly fewer hands.

For AKEL, growth should mean the improvement of working people’s incomes, the strengthening the welfare state and ensuring that tax burdens are distributed fairly, which is precisely why we voted against the 2019 state budget. Furthermore, AKEL tabled amendments aiming at protecting public property and wealth from the attempt underway to sell it out and that attempts to “rationalise” public spending.