Cabinet is expected tomorrow to approve the Draft Budgetary Plan which Cyprus will submit to the EU, Finance Minister Harris Georgiades said on Monday.
He will then officially submit the state budget for 2019 to the House of Representatives.
Speaking on the sidelines of a conference on responsible gaming, Georgiades said the budget has already been approved and tomorrow the Cabinet will approve the Draft Budgetary Plan, which Cyprus, like any other EU member – state, should submit to the European Commission in the context of the European semester.
As he said, the EU had strict rules in the area of economic governance, since the stability of the Eurozone itself depended on the fiscal discipline of the member states. Cyprus, he added, was consistently following those rules.
“Fiscal destabilisation in a member- state can easily spread and negatively affect all the others,” he noted.
Asked about recent contacts on investment opportunities in Cyprus by delegations who visited London and New York, Georgiades said that the island’s image abroad has clearly improved, however there was no room for complacency.
As he said it was important for Cyprus to be in constant contact with the international investment community and inform potential investors about developments and the prospects of the Cypriot economy.
He also expressed the view that in both London and New York, the picture about Cyprus was positive.
Asked about the 3.1% increase in September’s inflation in Cyprus, the Minister said that despite the increase in September, inflation was much lower that the 2% monthly target. He added that there was still a margin, inflation was below the EU average and had in no way reached the point to be considered as a potential danger.
Answering to another question, the Minister expressed satisfaction that Cyprus has returned to the investment grade, due to the difficult decisions taken recently in the banking sector
(Cyprus News Agency)
