Cyprus will terminate, at the end of October, its economic support program to businesses and employees, which was introduced after the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020, Labor and Social Insurance Minister Zeta Emilianidou said.
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Emilianidou, who is in charge of applying the program, said that the current conditions do not warrant its continuation.
"The economy is back on the path of growth, unemployment has dropped sharply, consumption is vibrant, and tourism is doing better than expected," Emilianidou told the state-run Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC) radio.
She said that the unemployment rate currently stood at 5.2 percent, which is better than the best unemployment figure recorded in 2010, before the onset of the economic crisis that forced Cyprus into a 10-billion-euro (11.7 billion U.S. dollars) bailout in 2013.
Finance Minister Constantinos Petrides has said that gross domestic product (GDP) growth is expected to exceed 5.5 percent in 2021 and reach four percent in 2022.
He said that the focus of the 2022 state budget, which will be presented soon to Parliament, will be shifted from support to growth. Development expenditure will be increased by 10 percent to 12 percent, he added.
Economic growth this year and next will help recoup the losses caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which forced authorities to impose extended lockdowns on the operation of businesses.
Finance Ministry projections show that Cyprus' GDP will reach its pre-pandemic (2019) level of 21.1 billion euros.
"After 18 months of support to the tune of more than one billion euros, neither the businesses nor their employees need state support anymore," Emilianidou told the state broadcaster.
Spokesmen for the hoteliers' association and the tourism sector, which benefited most from the support program, said that tourism has been brisk since the summer months of July and August.
They said that the country's hotels, which are currently hiring employees for next year, are faced with a severe shortage of low-level support staff. ■