With PMIs picking up across Europe, the nations' 'leaders' are spreading the good word that the worst is over (again) and its all sunshine and unicorns from here. But it's not. As Cyprus' Anastasiades glibly comments on small improvements in their capital controls - amid collapsing deposits [4], bluntly ignoring the reality of a record implosion in the nation's home prices [5], the facts for the man on the street are dismal. The number of jobless people in the smallest EU nation jumped 32% year-over-year to its highest in the 19 years [6] data has been collected.
[7]
[The current number of unemployed Cypriots is five times its pre-crisis levels!]
The ever-idiotically-optimistic IMF predicts unemployment will peak at 16.9% (with Cyprus unemployment standing at 15.9% in Q1 already) and 13% cumulative contraction in GDP and it seems there is little light at the end of the tunnel for the average Cypriot [8] (even as the Cyprus stock index has risen 4% in the last week).