Muhannad Samara, for ACIC Inc.
Jan 2, 2019
In an interview with Bloomberg Television, on the back of Standard and Poor’s upgrade of Cyprus to “Investment Grade”, the Minister of finance of Cyprus, Harris Georgiades, added more color to picture of Cyprus’s economy.
The minister opened his remarks with a declaration of 4% growth in contrast to the island’s GDP. He also confirmed, for the first time since the financial crisis in Cyprus, that Fiscal Surplus has been in registered in 2018.
When asked about the banking sector, and weather the sector has survived the crisis, Georgiades confirmed that bank where indeed at the heart of the crisis but progress towards stability is now steady.
Georgiades went on answering questions about whether or not banks are becoming too big in Cyprus. The minster commented that Banks, in contrast to the GDP, during the crisis, where 8 times bigger. At the present time, banks are down to 3 fold bigger than the GDP.
The minister confirmed that the banking sector is built on a healthy foundation and the financial regulatory climate in Cyprus continues to expand on this foundation. “New capital is being injected, more direct supervision by the European Central Bank” the minister said.
When asked about the Russian financial influence in Cyprus, the Minister confirmed that bank deposits have shrunk significantly and that the only Russian relationship to the economy relates to tourism! The Mister also confirmed that there are no current economic relationships between Cyprus and Turkey due to Turkey’s political positions of Cyprus.
“Confidence has been restored, economy is growing rapidly” The minister cheered.
The full interview can be viewed here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2018-09-21/s-p-raises-cyprus-to-investment-grade-video
