Cabinet to meet on 2025 state budget
The Cabinet will hold an extraordinary session on Friday afternoon to discuss the state budget for 2025 in addition to a fiscal framework for 2025-28.
The budget for next year, Finance Minister Makis Keravnos told the Cyprus News Agency (CNA), aims at reining in employment in the public sector, the reduction of public debt and the implementation of significant infrastructure projects.
The second budget to be tabled under the government of Nikos Christodoulides is projected to have an estimated surplus of 3.3 per cent and a primary surplus (excluding debt servicing expenditure) of 4.8 per cent of GDP.
Following GDP growth data for the second quarter of 2024, the finance ministry announced it would revise upwards its projection for 2024 with the new estimates to be incorporated in the 2025 state budget.
Sources told CNA that this year’s growth will be revised to 3.8 per cent from the initial estimate of 2.9 per cent, while GDP growth in 2025 is estimated to remain at 3.1 per cent as per the previous estimate.
Furthermore, unemployment rate is projected to fall below five per cent to an estimated 4.8 per cent.