Presidential candidate advocates return to Cyprus pound

Presidential candidate Yulia Khovrina-Komninos is advocating that Cyprus should leave the Euro currency behind and reinstate the old Cyprus pound.

“Our programme for the economy includes the key proposal that we must return to the Cyprus pound,” she told Alpha on Thursday.

She argued that such a move would grant the state greater power to control public finances and tackle inflation through the control of fiscal and monetary policy. Those tools, she said, would allow the government to take on issues such as social housing.

Khovrina-Komninos said that corruption could be curtailed by crypto tracing technology the Cyprus pound.

“We have a team of economists, myself included, who have looked at this issue but I must emphasise that [us reinstating the pound] would not necessitate us leaving the EU, but I cannot rule that out,” she added.

As for leaving the bloc, Khovrina-Komninos said that depends on other issues as well.

She emphasised that her academic background includes qualifications in economics, diplomacy, and politics.

The presidential candidate is part of the United Cyprus Republican Party (ERKK) which describes itself as a new political force, stating that it officially registered in 2021.

Khovrina-Komninos explained that she was born in the Soviet Union but has been living in Cyprus for most of her life, since 1994, and her children were born on the island.

Asked what brought her to Cyprus, Komninos referred to her surname pointing to familial ties to Greece.