Consumer prices are expected to increase 0.8% this year and 0.7% in 2018, the IMF said in its World Economic Outlook. The unemployment rate is expected to drop next year to 10.7% from 11.8% this year and 13% last year.

The current account deficit is expected to narrow to 3.8% of economic output in 2017 and to 2.7% next year from 5.3% last year, the IMF said.

While the new forecast appears to revise downwards the forecast published in the concluding statement prepared by the IMF staff on Friday, a week after the latest post-programme surveillance mission, it actually preceded it as it was prepared in September, an IMF official said in a telephone interview on Wednesday.

The finance ministry said on September 13, that it expects the economy to expand 3.6% this year and 3% in 2018, after growing 3% last year.

Source: Cyprus Mail