Boone, Laurence, Céline, Renucci, Ruben Segura-Cayuela, (2013), ”Eurozone: Looking for growth”, www.voxeu.org, 25 March. What happens after the crisis ends? This column estimates the long-term effects of the current cyclical downturn on Eurozone economies. In the absence of any real impetus for bold reform, estimates show that the damage will indeed be long lasting, permanently impairing growth for an ageing population that requires higher growth capacity more than ever before.

Véron, Nicolas, (2013), “Europe’s Cyprus blunder and its consequences”, www.voxeu.org, 25 March. The Monday morning Eurozone Cyprus bailout is now public, although details are scant. This column argues that this package cancels out some of the mistakes in last week’s package. Last week, the Troika should have vetoed the small-deposit tax and prepared a plan B for the Cypriot parliament’s rejection. Avoiding the risky scenario of a Cyprus exit will …Read More

Pop,Valentina, (2013), “Cyprus ‘business model’ was no mystery to EU”, EUobserver.com, 22 March. Be it the German finance minister, European Central Bank (ECB) officials or the head of the Eurogroup – they all agree on one thing: Cyprus must scrap its “unsustainable business model” based on low taxes and attracting large amounts of bank deposits from abroad, mainly Russia. The Cypriot banking sector, relying largely on deposits, is more than …Read More

Beck, Thorsten, (2013), “Cyprus: What are the alternatives?”, www,voxeu.org, 22 March. Cypriot banks urgently need restructuring and downsizing, but a functioning financial system is necessary to handle Cyprus’s transformation to an economic model not based on an oversized banking sector. This column argues that splitting the Cypriot banking system into a bad ‘legacy’ part and a good forward-looking part seems the only feasible and effective solution to resolve the current …Read More

Whyte, Philip,Tilford, Simon, (2013), “Could Cyprus reignite the eurozone crisis?”, Centre for European Reform, 22 March. Each of the crisis-hit eurozone countries shares some responsibility for its predicament. Italy used membership of the single currency as an excuse to go slow on pushing through much-needed structural reforms of its economy. The Irish and Spanish were excessively relaxed about their booming housing markets. Greece and Portugal were simply not sufficiently converged …Read More

Momani, Bessma, (2013), “Is Russian Peter Being Used to Pay the Cypriot’s Paul?”, Brookings Institute, 21 March. Cyprus, a small island of one million people, has very large banks. In fact, the banks have the wealth of eight times the entire Cypriot economy. Obviously, this doesn’t add up and that’s because Cyprus has become an offshore financial centre, offering a haven for money transfers, money laundering, and Internet banks. Foreigners …Read More

Bruton, John, (2013), “Cyprus … A Test Case for Future European Banking Policy”, The Centre for European Policy Studies, 21  March. In this CEPS Commentary, the former Irish Prime Minister calls the precedents being set in the Cypriot banking case “troubling” and reflective of a lack of clarity and consistency of thought by both the eurozone Finance Ministers and the European Commission. He welcomes the rejection of the deal by …Read More

Mody, Ashoka, (2013), “Rolling the Dice in Cyprus”,  www.project-syndicate.org, 21 March. The task was never going to be an easy one: impose losses worth about €5.8 billion ($7.5 billion) on lenders to the Cypriot government and depositors with the country’s banks. And now that effort has led Europe to its latest impasse. In marathon negotiations, the Cypriot government, under the supervision of the troika (the European Commission, the European Central …Read More

Aslund, Anders, (2013), “Russia to the Rescue? Why Moscow May Bail out Cyprus”, The Peterson Institute for International Economics, 21 March. Suddenly, Russia has become a central player in the Cypriot financial crisis. On the very evening after the Cypriot parliament rejected a proposed levy on bank deposits that the Cypriot president had previously accepted as a condition for a bailout package of €10 billion, Finance Minister Michael Sarris flew …Read More

Elliott, Douglas, (2013), “Cyprus May Be a Turning Point in the Eurozone Crisis”, Brookings Institute, 20 March. One way or another, the situation is Cyprus likely marks a major turning point in the eurozone crisis. It could be the beginning of true disaster for the zone, eventually leading to a series of sovereign debt defaults and possible exits from the euro area. It could also be the point at which …Read More