June 30 is just over two weeks away. By that date, Cyprus will have to find the necessary funds to cover the debt of its banks: just to save the most important, the Cyprus Popular Bank, Nicosia must recover an amount equal to 10% of its GDP, or about 1.8 billion euros.
Currently the EU Commissioner for Monetary Affairs, Olli Rehn, has denied that an official request has already arrived, but it seems that the government of the third largest island in the Mediterranean, with fewer than one million inhabitants, has established that it will not be able to do it alone. The Finance Minister, Vassos Shiarly, has in fact declared that the country needs an urgent international aid plan to recapitalize its banks. StAccording to some sources, the aid package for Cyprus is estimated to be around 3-4 billion euros.
Cyprus is therefore preparing to be the fifth country in the euro area to ask for some form of livelihood. After Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain even the island (dramatically) closely linked to the economy of Athens manifests that it can no longer walk in the euro on its own two feet.
The Cypriot banking system was in fact brought to its knees by the Greek economy: being highly exposed to the neighboring country, it therefore suffered heavy losses after the Greek debt restructuring, in which the banks of Nicosia lost around 3 billion euros, not counting the more than 20 billion in private sector investments at risk.
