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Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades says the terms of his country's new $13 billion bailout are "painful," but that he had to agree to the deal with international lenders to keep the island nation from economic collapse1.
In a televised speech to his country Monday night, Anastasiades said, "Our choices were not easy."
He said that at banks on the Mediterranean2 island, capital restrictions3 will be imposed to prevent depositors from making massive cash withdrawals4. But he said the restrictions would be "very temporary."
Most of those banks were due to reopen Tuesday, but now all will remain closed until Thursday. Banks in Cyprus have been closed for more than a week during the crisis and the size of withdrawals by customers at automated5 teller6 machines has been limited.
In securing the rescue package, Cyprus avoided bankruptcy7 and an exit from the euro currency union. But the impact of the deal is drawing widely different interpretations8.
Wealthy Russian investors9 have parked vast sums in Cypriot banks. But Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Monday that Cyprus, by agreeing to impose a tax of about 30 percent on big, uninsured accounts with more than $130,000, is "continuing, I think, to plunder10 the loot" of his countrymen.
German Chancellor11 Angela Merkel, Europe's chief advocate for forcing debt-ridden countries to resolve their financial woes12, described the Cyprus rescue plan as fair.
"I am very pleased that a solution was found last night and that we have been able to avoid an insolvency," said Merkel. "I believe that a fair burden distribution was achieved. On the one hand, banks have to take responsibility for themselves which is what we have always said. We do not want taxpayers13 to save banks. Banks must save themselves. This is what will happen in the case of Cyprus.''
The bailout terms were reached in last-minute negotiations14 in Brussels, just ahead of a deadline set by the European Central Bank. The central bank has said it would cut off emergency funding to Cypriot banks if no deal was reached. With the bailout secure, the bank said it would continue the emergency assistance.
Cypriot officials warned of tough times ahead for the country, whose economy accounts for just two-tenths of one percent of the eurozone's economic fortunes. Cypriot Finance Minister Michael Sarris predicted the Cypriot economy would recover. But he said the nation will be paying for the past mistakes of its bankers and the government, who together turned the island into a tax haven15 for offshore16 investors, with limited regulation.
"I don't think there is any denying that the Cyprus people will have to go through some tough times and will suffer the consequences of a protracted17 period where wrong decisions were made, primarily at the banking18 level, but also the fiscal19 excesses that we had to adjust over a relatively20 short period of time," said Sarris.
Greek Orthodox Archbishop Chrysostomos II said there "will be a lot of difficulties, some will lose their jobs, the poverty will increase."
To secure the $13 billion bailout from their European neighbors, the central bank and International Monetary21 Fund, Cyprus had to raise $7.5 billion. As part of the deal, it agreed to close the island's second largest bank, Laiki, and enforce heavy losses on wealthy bank depositors. The island last week rejected an earlier plan sanctioned by the lenders that also would have taxed the insured accounts of small investors.
If no deal had been reached, Cyprus would have defaulted, and likely been forced to leave the eurozone.
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1 collapse | |
vi.累倒;昏倒;倒塌;塌陷 | |
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2 Mediterranean | |
adj.地中海的;地中海沿岸的 | |
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3 restrictions | |
约束( restriction的名词复数 ); 管制; 制约因素; 带限制性的条件(或规则) | |
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4 withdrawals | |
n.收回,取回,撤回( withdrawal的名词复数 );撤退,撤走;收回[取回,撤回,撤退,撤走]的实例;推出(组织),提走(存款),戒除毒瘾,对说过的话收回,孤僻 | |
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5 automated | |
a.自动化的 | |
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6 teller | |
n.银行出纳员;(选举)计票员 | |
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7 bankruptcy | |
n.破产;无偿付能力 | |
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8 interpretations | |
n.解释( interpretation的名词复数 );表演;演绎;理解 | |
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9 investors | |
n.投资者,出资者( investor的名词复数 ) | |
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10 plunder | |
vt.劫掠财物,掠夺;n.劫掠物,赃物;劫掠 | |
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11 chancellor | |
n.(英)大臣;法官;(德、奥)总理;大学校长 | |
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12 woes | |
困境( woe的名词复数 ); 悲伤; 我好苦哇; 某人就要倒霉 | |
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13 taxpayers | |
纳税人,纳税的机构( taxpayer的名词复数 ) | |
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14 negotiations | |
协商( negotiation的名词复数 ); 谈判; 完成(难事); 通过 | |
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15 haven | |
n.安全的地方,避难所,庇护所 | |
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16 offshore | |
adj.海面的,吹向海面的;adv.向海面 | |
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17 protracted | |
adj.拖延的;延长的v.拖延“protract”的过去式和过去分词 | |
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18 banking | |
n.银行业,银行学,金融业 | |
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19 fiscal | |
adj.财政的,会计的,国库的,国库岁入的 | |
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20 relatively | |
adv.比较...地,相对地 | |
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21 monetary | |
adj.货币的,钱的;通货的;金融的;财政的 | |
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22 ward | |
n.守卫,监护,病房,行政区,由监护人或法院保护的人(尤指儿童);vt.守护,躲开 | |
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