Cyprus Mail www.cyprus-mail.com
Thursday, February 28, 2013
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CYPRUS
EUROPE
SHOWBIZ Z
Full list of new cabinet members announced 6
Italy political crisis continues as Grillo snubs Bersani 9
It wouldn’t be Bowie if it was sane 14
Sarris jumps in with both feet New minister says his priority is to speed up aid procedures By George Psyllides
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UTGOING Finance Minister Vassos Shiarly said yesterday the government had funds to cover its obligations until May, as its eightmonth wait for an international bailout continued. “Based on the data before us, fiscal issues can be managed without a problem until May, because we always work three months ahead,” Shiarly told reporters after meeting President-elect Nicos Anastasiades and Michalis Sarris, the island’s new finance minister. Shiarly, who formally hands over to Sarris tomorrow, said that based on present circumstances the state would not need to resort to additional borrowing for another two months. Anastasiades said he did not have a clear picture yet of the nitty gritty issues but pledged to handle them in an effective manner. “We will handle them... in a way that will contribute to tackling the problems and not creating more,” the President-elect said. Cyprus has been holding inconclusive talks for a loan from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union since an EU-sanctioned debt writedown of Greek sovereign debt saddled banks with losses equalling about 25 per cent of its gross do-
mestic product. A rapid deterioration of the island’s economy since then could see it receiving up to €17.5 billion in aid, almost equal to its economic output. Anastasiades has vowed to press ahead aggressively to clinch a bailout deal. Sarris warned that the timeframes were tight. “We have already had contacts with important people at ministerial and technocratic levels so as to expedite achieving a deal,” Sarris said. Asked about the possibility of a bilateral loan, Sarris said the priority was to speed up procedures to resolve the problem once and for all. “I believe this is the most convincing solution, which will bring back stability. This is the best way to manage the situation,” he said. The new finance minister said room to renegotiate the conditions of the bailout was limited although there were some areas where better targeting of social spending would not change the fiscal adjustment. It is a matter of small detail and not significant changes, he said. Sarris said avoiding privatisations was a difficult chapter since they had been linked to debt sustainability. International ratings agency Standard and Poor’s said late on Tuesday the island’s sovereign credit ratings and
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‘GOODBYE CHRISTOFIAS’
A group of around 200 people gathered at the presidential palace last night to symbolically ‘see off’ President Demetris Christofias and to pay tribute to the memory of the 13 victims of the Mari naval base blast in July 2011, for which many hold the outgoing president responsible (Christos Theodorides) STORY PAGE 4
Benedict’s emotional farewell POPE Benedict bid an emotional farewell at his last general audience yesterday, acknowledging the “rough seas” that marked his papacy “when it seemed that the Lord was sleeping.” In an unusually public outpouring for such a private man, he alluded to some of the most difficult times of his papacy, which was dogged by sex abuse scandals, leaks of his private papers and reports of infighting among his closest aides. “Thank you, I am very moved,” Benedict told a cheering crowd of more than 150,000 people in St Peter’s Square a day before he becomes the first pope to step down in some six centuries. He said he had great trust in the Church’s future, that his abdication was for the good of the Church and asked for prayers for cardinals choosing his successor at a time of crisis. The Vatican said the address, repeatedly interrupted by applause and cries of “Benedict, Benedict”, was the last by the pope, who as of this evening will have the title “pope emeritus.” “There were moments of joy and light but also moments that were not easy ... there were moments, as there were throughout the history of the Church, when the seas were rough and the wind blew against us and it seemed that the Lord was sleeping,” he said. When he finished the crowd, which spilled over into surrounding streets and included many of the red-hatted cardinals who will elect his successor in a closed doors conclave next month, stood to applaud. “I took this step in the full knowledge of its gravity and rarity but with a profound serenity of spirit,” he said.
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