Banks back to normal but curbs hurt Cyprus businesses

Businesses and families in Cyprus are suffering despite the return to normal banking hours on Friday, as draconian capital controls make it hard to pay salaries and bills, trade groups said.

A day after banks first reopened following a 12-day lockdown, small queues built up again outside banks with customers facing curbs which include a daily withdrawal limit of 300 euros ($385).

Banks on the east Mediterranean island were open from 8:30 am (0630 GMT) to 1:30 pm (1130 GMT) on Friday, their normal hours. On Thursday they were open from the unusually late time of noon to 6:00 pm.

The imposition of the controls near the end of the month has caused extra difficulties, as that is the time in Cyprus when wages and rents are normally paid.

"There will be some difficulties and discomfort as regards the payment of wages," Michalis Antoniou, assistant director of the Employers' and Industrialists Federation, told AFP.

"Next week we expect things to get back to normal and have an economic system in operation. But normal after the shock is not the same as before the tragedy -- there will be a before and and after 15th March." An initial bailout plan sealed on the night of March 15-16 was rejected by lawmakers before Cyprus finally agreed a 10-billion-euro ($13-billion) EU-IMF bailout in Brussels on Monday. The deal calls for the winding down of Cyprus's second largest bank, Laiki, which will be absorbed by the island's biggest lender, Bank of Cyprus.

Cypriot authorities repeatedly delayed the reopening of the banks until they finally announced the capital controls on Wednesday.

AFP