The general director of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, credited Cyprus for  the successful implementation of the Memorandum.

During an interview in “Fileleftheros” newspaper, Ms. Lagarde stresses that Cyprus is doing really well and deserves a lot of credit, but added that the road is long and winding.

She noted, however, that unemployment is still very high and stresses that the recovery will be gradual and will need accurate and timely implementation of reforms to return to growth and jobs.

Ms. Lagarde mentioned three challenges that Cyprus is facing:

-Dealing with non-performing loans and the consolidation of banks to enable them to finance development.
-Maintaining sound public finances to gradually begin reducing the very high public debt
-Strengthening of institutions so that the public sector meets the needs of the Cypriot people.

The IMF chief also expressed the view that there is much room for improvement in the management of social benefits and stressed the need to combat fraud as well as a fairer distribution of the tax burden.

Finally, she referred to privatizations, noting that they can help reduce public debt and to attract the necessary foreign investments needed.