Cyprus budgets EUR 48 mln to hire 1195 civil servants

The Cyprus government has sent before the House of Representatives a Supplementary Budget amounting to EUR 48.4 mln for the hiring of 1,195 new employees in the public sector. The Minister of Finance expressed his belief that the fiscal deficit for 2009 and 2010 will settle within the permissible limit of the Stability Programme (i.e. below 3.0%), whilst he argued that the total Supplementary Budget (sums to EUR 246 mln) is part of the government’s expansionary fiscal policy which is needed to boost economic activity and contain unemployment.