Opposition stirs it up at economy discussion

DISY Vice Chairman Averoff Neophytou was yesterday accused of encouraging a “national depression”, after claiming the state’s deficit would be much higher than the Finance Minister’s “ambitious” predictions.
The accusation came from leading party AKEL’s spokesman, Stavros Evagorou, during a heated debate over the state of the economy at the House yesterday.
Neophytou led the way with his party’s predictions for this year’s deficit.
“The government insists the deficit will be around 6.0 per cent for 2010; I truly hope so, because it is much more possible that the deficit for 2010 will range between 7.0 and 8.0 per cent,” said Neophytou.
In numbers, he added, this would mean a deficit of up to €1.3 billion.
Neophytou went a step further and predicted an 8.0 to 10.0 per cent deficit by the end of 2011, if the correct measures were not taken.
With 80 per cent of the budget going on fixed state expenditures and seeing that no drastic action has been taken to reduce this, he added, “it makes one wonder how someone can be so hugely ambitious as to think that some logistical readjustments for the remaining 20 per cent would resolve our budgetary problems”.
Neophytou wondered how it was possible for the rest of the world to be emerging from the crisis after two years, while Cyprus was still at the stage of discussing the measures that needed to be taken.
In response, Evagorou said DISY’s vice chairman was trying to create a national depression, adding that the first signs of economic recovery started being felt in 2010, with predictions of a 0.6 per cent growth rate by the end of the year.
“Someone listening to Mr Neophytou describe the Cypriot economy in the way that he has, will surely fall into a depression,” said Evagorou.
He added that 2011’s budget was predicting a 1.5 per cent growth wait, while it remains high in developmental expenditures and increases social benefits.
Evagorou was also asked to comment on claims by the Chairman of the House Finance Committee, DIKO’s Nicolas Papadopoulos, that it would take €300 million to achieve the economic aims set by the EU – as penalisation for the island’s excessively high deficit – for this year and a further €450 million for 2011. Papadopoulos wondered how the government planned to raise these amounts.
“AKEL will soon engage in talks with official DIKO in an effort to find consensual proposals that will help us correct things in the correct direction,” said Evagorou.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.