Opening Keynote speech by the Minister of Finance Mr Constantinos Petrides at the 1st Annual Financial Markets Forum

I would like to welcome you to the 1st Annual Financial Markets Forum. The past few years, talking about economic developments and the financial sector has been far from boring, a period with constant changes and challenges, forcing policymakers and market participants to remain alert and active. Today, this forum is an excellent opportunity to talk broader about the economy and growth, taking, of course, into account the challenging context of the energy crisis and inflation, but not focusing solely on them.

Allow me to begin with an overview of the current state of play of the Cyprus economy through the lens of independent credit ratings. The Credit Ratings of the Republic of Cyprus, in recent years, followed a very positive and, I would say, remarkable, improvement because they have been achieved despite the uncertainty, recession and inflationary pressures that the global and especially the European economy is facing due to the energy crisis and the disruption of the supply chains which had already begun from the coronavirus health crisis and was seriously aggravated by the war in Ukraine.

In particular, all Credit Rating Agencies agree that Cyprus' economic performance, including public finances during 2021, but also the resilience it has shown in 2022 to date has been much better than anticipated and that medium-term conditions continue to support efforts to reduce the country's public debt...