Business View

The Cypriot government will not give up its low corporate tax, which has enabled it to attract a good number of foreign companies, although its European partners demand it in negotiations for financial assistance, said today the Minister of Finance, Vassos Shiarly .

In a press conference, defended Shiarly importance to the economy that reduced rate of 10% which applies to companies.

The corporate tax increase was one of the workhorses in the European rescue of Ireland, whose imposition of 12.5% was seen by other partners such as unfair competition.

Finally, the Dublin government was able to maintain its position and Cyprus hopes to do the same.

Shiarly today expressed confidence that Europe does not raise this claim and said not to be concerned about the conditions requiring their members to the country in exchange for financial aid.

Finance Minister was open to a possible revision of the automatic updating of wages prevailing in Cyprus, a mechanism in place in a minority of Member States and which has been criticized by Brussels.

The “troika” formed by the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund in Cyprus is currently analyzing the needs of the country, some sources estimate that around 10,000 million euros, mainly to deal with the recapitalization its banks.

Shiarly trust said today that when it formally opened loan negotiations, Europe has in mind when setting the price terms “very high” that Cypriot banks took on debt relief agreed by Greek international creditors .

“Our economy would not have had greater problems than those with other European countries had it not been for what happened in another country in the euro area,” he recalled, referring to neighboring Greece.

The minister said the country’s entities in possession of Greek sovereign bonds recorded losses of approximately 4,200 million euros as a result of program cuts helena debt agreed with the private sector.

That price was “unfair” according Shiarly, since if the distribution of the burden was shared in the EU by GDP, Cyprus would have received only about 200 million.

“This was a European problem. I think we should have spread the loss among all, in solidarity,” he said.

Cyprus, which took over on July 1 the rotating presidency of the Union, still waiting to get a bilateral loan from Russia, which could join the European aid and serve to make this more limited.

Shiarly finally said that if Moscow agrees to provide funding to the country, it will discuss its final decision on its eurozone partners.

The minister refused today to note how much the country could ask the European bailout funds.