Finance Minister Kikis Kazamias has described the decision of Standard and Poor`s to downgrade Cyprus economy credit rating as arbitrary and unsubstantiated, accusing the agency of serving other expediencies.

In statements Saturday at the Ministry of Finance, Kazamias said that Standard and Poor`s decided yesterday to downgrade the credit rating of the Republic of Cyprus by 2 notches due to the following reasons: (a) the deep political, financial and monetary problems within the euro area and (b) the exposure of the Cypriot financial system to the Greek economy.

The Ministry of Finance, he noted, expressed its deep distress at the decision of S&P’s , noting that “this decision can justifiably be considered arbitrary and unsubstantiated”.

Kazamies raised questions on the time the Agency chose to take this decision just two days after the European Commission had welcomed the measures taken by Cyprus to consolidate its public its finances, completely ignoring this fact, which was considered an important negative factor in its previous assessments. `` He added that the Agency completely and arbitrarily ignored the fact that Cyprus is one of the few countries, which have met their financial needs for 2012.

He also said that it has completely ignore the positive momentum being built regarding the prospects of the Cyprus economy following the publication of the results demonstrating the existence of significant gas reserves in EEZ of Cyprus. Kazamias noted that the Agency completely and arbitrarily denied the right of the Republic of Cyprus to appeal the above decision, as its fixed practice was so far.