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19th March 2024
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HomeInvestmentCyprus' vulnerabilities remain significant

Cyprus’ vulnerabilities remain significant

CYPRUS faces ‘excessive’ budgetary imbalances, the European Commission said on Wednesday in its winter package report approved by the College of Commissioners and presented in Brussels by Vice-President Valdis Dobrobowski, Commissioner Moscovici and the Commissioner Tysen.

In the category of countries with “excessive imbalances”, only three countries were ranked this year: Greece, Cyprus and Italy. Similarly, there was a softer ranking of countries with just “imbalances” in which Bulgaria, Germany, France, Croatia, Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania and Sweden are included.

“Cyprus is experiencing excessive imbalances,” said the report. “A very high share of non-performing loans burdens the financial sector and high stock of private, public, and external debt hangs on the economy, in a context of still relatively high, even though declining, unemployment and weak potential growth.”

The commission warned that “the current account deficit is significantly negative, even taking into account the presence of special purpose entities, reflecting strong domestic demand as well as the negative saving among households, and is not adequate to guarantee a sustainable adjustment of the large stock of net external liabilities” and states that “deleveraging of private sector debt is ongoing but only slowly. New lending to the private sector remains limited.”

Meanwhile, it added, the transfer of a significant portfolio of non-performing loans from the Cyprus Co-operative Bank to the public sector in the context of the bank`s sale and wind-down reduced significantly the share of non-performing loans in the banking system. However, “non-performing loans remain high for both households and corporations.”

“The government support in the sale of the Cyprus Co-operative Bank had a one-off increasing impact on public debt in 2018,” it added.

Looking ahead, it said the high public debt was expected to be on a declining path on the back of a continued strong fiscal performance. Compared to last year, the reform momentum had been stepped up especially on the front of measures to address the vulnerabilities from non-performing loans, but more progress was needed on structural reforms to increase the growth potential.

In its report, the European Commission also noted that Cyprus had made “Limited progress on ensuring reliable and swift systems for issuing and transferring of title deeds.”

Further reading

Country Report Cyprus 2019

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2 COMMENTS

  1. Limited progress on issuing Title Deeds – too true!!! Fifteen years on and we are still being fobbed off with the excuse that the Developer refuses to complete the site with a green area that nobody wants.

    We are told we can have Title Deeds but they will not be any good at all without the completion certificate.

    The local council tells us they will complete this unwanted green area at a cost of 76,000 euros!!!! They want the money up front of course!!! Even though the developer is still trading!!! Yet more frustration!!!!

    Ed: I know it will be of little comfort, but there are many people in the same position as yourself. There is no legal recourse for developers who fail to complete a project, walk off the job and start a new development somewhere else.

    I’m believe the only thing you can do, as the law stands at the moment, is to pay for the work to be done and then sue the develop to recover the costs. Being Cyprus, this can take many, many years due to the inadequacy of the legal system; it’s ridiculous!

  2. When you add together all the countries with debt of one level or another it comes to half the EU.
    What’s going wrong?

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