Parliament to begin debating the 2023 state budget

Parliament will begin debating the 2023 state budget on Tuesday, for the last three sessions, before the legislative body goes into recess ahead of the presidential elections.

Τhe session is set to begin at 3pm.

Heads and/or representatives of the political parties will address the house and according to the planning, leaders of ruling Disy, main opposition Akel, and junior opposition Diko will speak for a total of 40 minutes and the leaders of the rest of the political parties for 30.

On Wednesday, the parliament will convene at 9am with a break at 1pm and continue from 3pm until 8pm.

There are 16 MPs scheduled to address the plenary in the morning session and 20 in the afternoon.

The debate will continue Thursday until 6pm, followed by the voting.

The budget provides for total revenue of €11.7 billion and expenditure amounting to €11.3 billion resulting in fiscal surplus of €0.46 billion corresponding to 1.7 per cent of GDP, while primary surplus (excluding debt servicing expenditure) is estimated to reach 3 per cent. It features an increase of 12 per cent in development projects, increased social protection spending, while debt servicing expenditure is estimated to drop by €500 million.

GDP growth is estimated to decelerate to 3 per cent from a projected 6 per cent growth this year.

So far only left-wing Akel has announced it will vote against the budget. The three-day debate will culminate on Thursday with the vote on the state budget.

The finance ministry requested from the house finance committee not to freeze public expenditure that would create problems to the smooth functioning of the public service in the first three months of 2023, as parliament will be closed until March due to the presidential elections scheduled for February 2023.

The parliament habitually blocks specific provisions of the annual state budget, which then must gain the approval of the house finance committee before they can be disbursed.