FINANCE Minister Michalis Sarris said yesterday that the government would honour its commitment not to expand on an agreed moratorium on hiring in the civil service.
He was speaking at the 44th congress of PASYDY, the civil servants’ blanket union. Sarris said the government would make good on its promise of opening new positions in understaffed departments, including Town Planning, Immigration and divisions in the ministries of the Environment, Health and Labour.
The minister praised PASIDY for its “responsible stance” with regard to the gradual extension of retirement age to 63.
On the economy, Sarris focused on Cyprus’ adoption of the single currency next year, saying adoption of the euro would boost state finances.
“Prices are not expected to rise, since the eurozone is an area of low inflation, and in any case the value of the Cyprus pound is greater that that of the euro,” noted Sarris.
Some of the benefits of switching to the euro would be better loan terms, limiting currency conversion costs, the saving of resources through a drop in interest rates and transparency in consumer prices, and incentives to foreign businessmen wishing to invest in Cyprus.
All this would contribute to sustaining conditions of macroeconomic stability, he added.
The cooperation of PASYDY and “every single person employed in the civil service” was key to achieving this goal.
However, Sarris hinted that the obligations arising from membership of the eurozone might mean more sacrifices from civil servants.
“We are perhaps the only EU-member country where state employees enjoy extremely generous pension plans, without substantial contributions on their part. But for how much longer can we sustain such a one-sided system?
“Has the time come when we should start thinking about introducing a system of contributions [to the pension fund] in the civil service?”
According to the minister, last year the economy grew at the rate of 3.7 per cent, similar to 2005.
Inflation dropped to 4.7 per cent from to 5.3 per cent in 2005, and the rate of inflation stood at 2.4 per cent.
In addition, public debt fell to 65.3 per cent of GDP, well within the Maastricht criteria.
??
??
??
??
