The 2026 state budget safeguards economic stability while giving back to the community, President Nikos Christodoulides said on Monday.

He was speaking before the Council of Ministers meeting to ratify the state’s draft balance sheet for 2026. The budget will next be debated in parliament.

“A robust growth-based economy is one of our top priorities,” the president said.

He described the balance sheet as a “surplus budget, a budget of stability, prospects, with a heavy social and developmental slant”.

The 2026 budget features a 4.7 per cent increase in development spending compared to 2025.

Social welfare spending will increase by 6.7 per cent compared to the funds allocated this year.

Christodoulides asserted that public debt continues on a downward trajectory.

“When we took office in 2023, the public debt was at 73.6 per cent [of GDP], in 2026 we will go to 52.9 per cent, one of the lowest in the eurozone…”

The government forecasts GDP growth of 3.1 per cent for next year, while the unemployment rate is projected to drop to 4.6 per cent.

“If we compare with what is happening in powerful states of the eurozone, and also consider that we are in the midst of two armed conflicts, these numbers are indicative of the responsible economic policy we are pursuing,” the president said.

“When it comes to the economy, we can neither experiment nor tinker around. We are accountable only to the Cypriot people.”