Cyprus needs 75 million euros by April to pay civil servant salaries and pensions, thus avoiding default. This was announced by the director of the Treasury of Nicosia, Rea Georgiou, to the Finance Committee of the Cypriot Parliament.
“The liquidity deficit amounts to 160 million euros – he explained -. We have 85 million reserves but they are not enough, we need an equivalent amount to avoid default". The payment of the first tranche envisaged by the international bailout plan is scheduled for May.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced Moscow's willingness to restructure the 2,5 billion euro loan granted to the island in 2011. The same aid that the Kremlin had denied to the Cypriot authorities last month, when Nicosia was seeking of an alternative to the severe conditions of the European bailout. To take the field, Moscow waited for the definition of the agreement between Nicosia and the European Union, the ECB and the Monetary Fund.
Putin did not specify the terms of an agreement, but according to Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, Cyprus' requests would amount to a 10% cancellation of the loan, the result of an extension of the loan for another five years and a reduction interest rates from 4,5 to 2,5%.
