‘Difficult days’ await Cypriot finance minister
CYPRUS’s new Finance Minister Haris Georgiades was sworn in yesterday following his predecessor’s resignation hours after a probe was launched into how the island was pushed to the verge of bankruptcy.
President Nicos Anastasiades warned him about the “difficult days ahead”. They would require “firstly, collectivity and, secondly, consistency and fiscal discipline and all those measures that will contribute to kick-starting the economy as soon as possible”, he said at the swearing in ceremony. “I have no doubt that you will not only accomplish your task to the full, but in the best way possible that is worthy of your predecessor,” Mr Anastasiades said.
Mr Georgiades, an economist who had been labour minister, formally took up his new post a day after Michalis Sarris said he was stepping down to co-operate with judges investigating the failure of Laiki Bank, where he was chairman for much of last year.
The bank’s collapse was a big contributor to the island’s financial near meltdown and need for a crippling eurozone bail-out.
Also sworn in yesterday was Zeta Emilianidou, who becomes the first woman in Mr Anastasiades’s cabinet, taking over from Mr Georgiades.
Mr Anastasiades said on Tuesday that he had accepted Mr Sarris’s resignation with “sadness”, and lauded his “high political ethos” for stepping down. Mr Sarris said he believed stepping down was “the right thing” to do to facilitate the investigators’ work.
His departure came as the government wrapped up talks with international lenders that will open the way for Cyprus to receive a €10bn bail-out, a government spokesman said. “We have completed the forming of the memorandum, which is a precondition for the loan agreement,” with the period to implement the deal extended by two years to 2018 to “ease pressure on the economy”, he said.
Cyprus is already in recession, and as he resigned Mr Sarris said that “2013 will be a very difficult year, and the beginning of 2014 will also be difficult. Beyond this I believe the prospects are positive.”
The central bank eased restrictions imposed last week to prevent a bank run, raising the limit on business transactions from €5,000 to €25,000 and allowing people to write cheques of up to €9,000.
With public anger mounting, Mr Anastasiades said no one would be immune from the judicial inquiry into the banking collapse, and called on the commission — headed by a former Supreme Court judge — to investigate him and his relatives with “extra vigour”. This is seen as a move to counter so far unsubstantiated allegations that his relatives used privileged information to get money out of the country before deposits were locked down. Other politicians and business figures have also been accused of taking advantage to pro- tect their assets from a hit on bank deposits imposed by European Union (EU)-led creditors last week.
Under the deal with the EU, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund, those with savings larger than €100,000 in the Bank of Cyprus face losing up to 60% of deposits over that amount. Banks have been under stringent capital controls since they reopened last Thursday. Sapa-AFP