Gold Magazine February - March 2013, Issue 23 | Page 41

ELECTIONS
XXXXXXX

Nicos
Anastasiades

Correcting Imbalances

F

inancial services have been the
most dynamic sector of the
Cypriot economy in the last
20 years. It is the sector with
the biggest contribution to
GDP and offers employment
opportunities to thousands of people. The
major factors that have enabled Cyprus to
become a successful regional financial centre
are the highly educated workforce, the stable
economic environment and the businessfriendly tax regime.
In the past few years, the economic environment has deteriorated and economic confidence has declined considerably. This is the
result of the deterioration of macroeconomic
indicators which led to several downgrades of
our economy by the rating agencies. Restoring confidence is of the utmost importance
and to restore confidence we have to start by
correcting the macroeconomic imbalances.
We should balance our budget as soon as possible by reducing public spendi