The Cyprus Finance Ministry has cut its economic forecasts in the wake of the global financial crisis.
Charilaos Stavrakis has said that the ministry projects economic growth of 2.1% as its central scenario, and 2.6% as an optimistic scenario instead of 3.0% provided for in the 2009 budget.
Despite the downward revision, Stavrakis said that both the finance ministry and the government have set a target that Cyprus will present, in 2009, the highest growth rate in the euro area which is expected, according to EU Commission figures, to present negative growth of 0.9%.
"The international financial crisis indeed is getting worse and this inevitably affects an open economy as that of Cyprus. However, we continue to believe that we will have very satisfactory growth rates," Stavrakis told a press conference.
