Government’s rosy picture of the economy defies reality

 

Statement of Georgos Loucaides, AKEL C.C. Spokesperson

AKEL C.C. Pre4ss Office, 7th September 2015, Nicosia

 

The representation of the figures, and especially the reality experienced by people in Cyprus, anything but justifies the festive tone that the government and DISY party are continuously trying to cultivate surrounding the economy.

The huge unemployment figures, particularly with regards the long-term unemployed, the percentage rates of non-performing loans that are unprecedented throughout the whole world, the on-going biggest pay cuts in Europe, the public health system which is collapsing, the 250,000 of our fellow citizens who are below the poverty line and the 60,000 fed by social food banks, our young people who are migrating in their thousands to seek a better future abroad, the closure and the continuing enormous pressure on thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises are just some of the facts that reflect the Cyprus economy’s particularly difficult reality.

Confronted with this reality, the government and the ruling DISY party must abandon their efforts to paint a rosy picture of the state of the Cyprus economy. Most importantly however, they must abandon the anti-social neoliberal austerity policy being imposed. They must end the policies to redistribute wealth in favour of the privileged minority and the privatization policies, the increases in the primary surplus by over € 700 million which deprive the economy of growth and the vulnerable groups of the population. They must stop promoting the further socialization of bank losses at the expense of small – borrowers and their guarantors through foreclosures of primary homes and the packaging and selling of loans.