Cyprus Fiscal Gap Falls to 3% of GDP in First Half

Cyprus’s fiscal deficit on a cash basis for the period January to June narrowed to about 3 percent of gross domestic product from 3.6 percent the year before, the Finance Ministry said.

Revenue rose 1.3 percent to 3 billion euros ($3.7 billion) from the same period a year ago, while expenditure fell 1.4 percent to 3.5 billion euros, the ministry said in an e-mailed statement today. The primary deficit, which doesn’t include debt-interest payments, fell to 212.2 million euros from 349.9 million euros the year before.

Cyprus, the euro area’s third smallest economy, which in June became the fifth member of the 17-country currency bloc to request a European rescue, intends cutting the fiscal deficit to 2.5 percent of GDP this year from 6.3 percent in 2011, Vassos Shiarly, the finance minister, said on April 30.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stelios Orphanides in Nicosia at sorphanides@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Craig Stirling at cstirling1@bloomberg.net