CYPRUS will not default on its debts, the government said yesterday, amid a raging war of words with the opposition.
“We will not default on our payments; I am stating it again so that we don’t start the same discussion,” government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou told reporters.
He had been asked if the country would receive the monetary assistance it had asked for by November to avoid a default.
Cyprus applied for assistance from its EU partners and the International Monetary Fund – the troika -- in June.
Troika officials have visited the island twice since in a bid to assess the scale of the assistance that is expected to be accompanied with painful austerity.
Stefanou rejected suggestions there was a delay in them returning, noting that no date had been set when they were here in July.
He also rejected suggestions that discussions between the two sides have frozen.
“Contacts and consultations with the troika, mainly on a technocratic level, continued in August,” Stefanou said.
Regarding reports that the government disagreed with the troika over the form of the austerity measures, Stefanou said they were in the process of discussions.
“When they come we will continue the negotiations and we will judge where each side is based on the result,” he said.
He added that the government believed any measures should include policies to support growth and social cohesion.
Parties meanwhile continued to trade barbs yesterday over who was responsible for the economy’s sorry state.
DISY spokesman Haris Georgiades accused the administration and ruling AKEL of irresponsibility at a critical time for the economy.
“More worrying of course, is their obstinate refusal, even now, to take decisions and measures to prevent a complete economic collapse,” Georgiades said.
AKEL spokesman Giorgos Loukaides reiterated that the reason for the bailout is the deep banking crisis and DISY cannot twist the truth.
He accused the opposition party of rejecting bills for the contribution of wealth, depriving the state of millions because “simply they wanted to saddle workers of the private and public sectors with the burden.”