IMF revises upwards projection for Cypriot economy

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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) revised upwards its projections for the Cyprus economy for this and the next year in a statement issued on Tuesday.

The statement which made available in Nicosia said that GDP growth this year will reach 3.4 percent compared to its original estimate of 2.5 percent and to 2.6 percent in 2018 from an original estimate of 2.3 percent.

The IMF also said that it expects Cyprus’s current account deficit to shrink to 3.8 percent this year, compared to 5.3 percent last year and to 2.7 percent in 2018 percent.

The IMF said in a statement on Friday that the Cypriot economy has achieved an impressive turnaround since the 2012-2013 economic and banking crisis but also urged Cyprus to get rid of important legacies from its earlier boom bust cycle to avoid a new crisis.

The IMF new estimates coincided with an announcement by the Cyprus Statistical Service on Tuesday revising upwards GDP growth for 2016 to 3 percent, from the previous estimate of 2.8 percent.

It also revised upwards the 2015 growth to 2 percent from the original estimate of 1.7 percent.

Cyprus was pulled back from the brink of an economic meltdown in March, 2013, in a 10-billion-euro economic assistance deal by the Eurogroup and the IMF.