Brussels, 27/01/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 27 January, the International Monetary Fund gave the go-ahead to the disbursement of aid of €126.3 million for Cyprus. The tone of the IMF's press statement was largely encouraging.
Deputy IMF director general Mitsuhiro Furusawa, however, said that “with recent delays in implementing structural reforms, there is a need to re-energize reform implementation to protect confidence and longer-term growth.”
“At the same time, public debt and non-performing loans need to be reduced from their current high levels,” added Furusawa, calling for “Prompt adoption of overdue reforms in tax administration, civil service employment, public financial management, and governance of state enterprises.” Furusawa encouraged Cyprus to “press ahead with a comprehensive privatization programme and concrete actions to improve the business environment, while abstaining from relying on tax incentives.” For the country's banks, he said “progress on the legal framework to facilitate securitization of loans and transfer of property title deeds in non-legacy cases should be accelerated.” (Original version in French by Elodie Lamer)