Cyprus is in line to receive the next tranche of its €10bn bailout – some €686m – after staff teams from the Troika of international lenders (European Commission, European Central Bank and the IMF) completed their fourth review of the island’s finances on 17 May.
The IMF says that Cyprus’ program remains on track, and that “fiscal targets for the first quarter of 2014 were met with considerable margin, reflecting better-than-projected revenue performance and prudent budget execution.” The recession in 2015 is expected to be less severe than initially anticipated, but the IMF says that the outlook remains challenging. In February of this year the IMF projected a 4.8% contraction of output in 2014. But that has since been revised down to 4.2%, due to a better-than-expected outturn for 2013 and “other recent indicators pointing to gains in confidence.” (CONTINUED - 364 WORDS)
