Nobel Peace Prize laureate  Christoforos Pissarides said that however painful it is to accept the memorandum, it is our only hope for saving the Cyprus economy from instant collapse.

In a statement to CNA, Pissarides expressed optimism that Cypriots will be able to overcome their troubles and we will see good days again, because they know how to work hard to overcome adversity and succeed.

Pissarides said “the requests placed upon us by the Eurogroup meeting on Friday are shocking. No one could have expected it. First reactions by the general public and the elected representatives in Parliament are completely justified”, he remarked.

“It is simply not fair to be forced to pay for the past mistakes of a few in such a manner” Pissarides underlined.

However, he added, “we have to step back and think of the alternatives”.

Pissarides told CNA “the truth is hard to swallow. If the law is not approved tomorrow the consequences will be much worse. There will be large scale bankruptcies and most small Cypriot bank depositors will lose everything, because they will discover that their banks will not open again.”

And this, he stressed, “will not happen in some vague future date; it will happen now, this week. Our economy will collapse”.

Pissarides said “I believe that however painful it is to accept the memorandum, it is our only hope for saving our economy from instant collapse. We will be able to overcome our troubles and we will see good days again, even better than the ones that we have known, because Cypriots know how to work hard to overcome adversity and succeed.

But first we have to accept that the deal that our government managed to work out in Brussels is the best hope that we have to avoid new disasters and make a new start”.

Eurozone lenders on Saturday agreed on a rescue package worth at least 10 billion euro but in exchange for the rescue fund, Cyprus agreed to levy a one time tax of 9.9 percent on deposits of over 100,000 euros held in the country’s banks. A tax of 6.7 percent will be applied to anything under 100,000 euros.

The Cypriot financial assistance package is estimated at 17.5 billion, of which 10 billion will be provided by the ESM and the IMF. The one-off tax levy is estimated to yield €5.8 billion, while the remaining amount will emerge from a privatization programme, a capital gains tax increase and a 2.5% increase in the Cypriot corporate tax, currently at 10%.