Cyprus: President says bankruptcy threat averted

CYPRIOT president Nicos Anastasiades has said that the country has no intention of leaving the Euro, and that the threat of default has been averted.

In a speech today the president accused EU ministers of “experimenting” with the country. Eurozone officials imposed a levy on all bank deposits over 100,000 euros, and there are currently limits on the amount of money that citizens can withdraw and move at any one time.

Anastasiades said: “We have no intention of leaving the euro. In no way will we experiment with the future of our country.”

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Cypriot banks were closed for almost two weeks due to a series of impromptu and pre-planned bank holidays, leaving the public struggling to withdraw their cash. Cypriot Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides said yesterday that he believed the restrictions on money movement would remain for “about a month”.

Cypriot authorities said on Friday that cheques could be used to make payments to government agencies, with a limit of 5,000 euros. Anything more than 5,000 euros would require Central Bank approval. This reversed the previous position where all chequing was prohibited.

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