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Georgiades presented to parliament the 2020 state budget

11/10/2019 15:14

Cyprus Minister of Finance Harris Georgiades presented to the President of the House of Representatives Demetris Syllouris the state budget for 2020, the last budget to be drafted with Georgiades as Finance Minister.
 
The budget provides for general government revenue amounting to €10 bill and expenditure of €9.4 billion with the budget surplus estimated at 2.7% of GDP and the primary surplus (excluding debt servicing expenditure) at 5.1% of GDP.
 
Georgiades has said that he intends to step down in end-December.
 
“This is the seventh budget I present on behalf of the government and I am glad to say that this budget as well has no deficits, we operate with a balanced budget, in fact with fiscal surplus, which is one of the basic preconditions for sustainable growth of our economy,” Georgiades said tendering the 2020 state budget.
 
Receiving the document, Syllouris expressed satisfaction over the timely presentation and highlighted the fact that 12 semi-governmental organisations have submitted their budgets for 2020, which happens for the first time in the history of the parliament.
 
“And this is a message to the rest of the semi-governmental organisations that the law should be implemented,” he said stressing that he will allow the discussion of budgets as urgent with the excuse that their employees should be paid.
 
So far semi-governmental organizations have tabled their budget in December or in January allowing little time for their examination and their approval and the Parliament had to place these budgets for approval as a matter of urgency.
 
Syllouris also requested whether Georgiades could present the budget to the Parliamentary Committee of Finance earlier than scheduled with the view to expediting the whole process.