In a written statement after the publication of the data for economic growth by Eurostat which showed that the Cypriot economy contracted by 5.1% in 2020, Minister of Finance Constantinos Petrides said: “The data concerning the real GDP growth rate in 2020 confirm the soundness of the government policies to support businesses and employees. The Cypriot economy’s resilience amid the coronavirus pandemic. The contraction was significantly lower that the forecasts made during the year, and the Cyprus GDP contraction in 2020 was significantly lower compared with the Eurozone average (-6.8%) and the EU (-6.4%)”.
“The real GDP data confirm both the effectiveness of government policies to support businesses and employees as well as the resilience of the Cypriot economy,” Petrides said.
He also noted that the Cypriot GDP growth rate in the fourth quarter of 2020 compared with the third quarter of 2020 was the third best among the member-states of the Euro area, which contracted by 0.6%.
“The challenges in the handling of the pandemic are great and are still before us and the problems in the market are still there, while there is still uncertainty concerning the rate of vaccination which is decisive for the economy and the evolution of the pandemic”, the Cypriot Finance Minister said.
Mr Petrides, also, added: “The government will continue using all means at its disposal to support this economy and towards that end will continue to seek cooperation with everyone. From now on everyone’s responsible stance as regards compliance with Covid protocols is key. In this way, we could collectively lay the foundations for a strong recovery in the coming period”.
