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(Figure 6.30) more of the effects of différent policy and/or différent economic
opportunities or constraints faced by two distinct économies, should be observed.
Seemingly, by 1990 much of any différence in economic performance is the resuit of
the emergence of two separate economic regimes, rather than the cost of war.
However, what différence did it make to the economic performance of the island? On
the basis of their combined growth performance relative to that of their peers, the allisland
economy seems to have fared well vis-à-vis the average peer group performance
(see Figure 6.30 and the first 3 columns of Figure 6.31). Interestingly, the two Cypriot
économies' individuai growth performances do not diverge dramatically in the 1980's,
they also compare well with the individuai growth performances of all the peer
économies in this volatile period (Table 6.9).
Table 6.9 (below) shows a breakdown of real growth rates north, south and allisland
growth rates in 1981-90, compared with the individuai peer group members'
performances. It reveals that Turkish and Greek-Cypriot economic growth was
highly respectable by international standards. It also reveals that in the 1980's the
divided Cypriot économies combined performance bucks the trend of its peers, as
do their performances individually, growth being faster than both that of the
aggregate mean and that of almost all the individuai peers. Not only does this raise
questions about why such impressive growth rates should have followed the shocks
of the recent past but it raises the issue of sustainability and international
competitiveness. Did the Turkish-Cypriot economy benefit from division by being
absorbed into the wider Turkish economy, as the growth rates below (Table 6.9)
suggest? This begs the question whether Turkish-Cypriot growth would have been
faster had they remained part of the Republic of Cyprus (Table 6.9). Would the
Republic of Cyprus have experienced such rapid economic growth had not been for
its recent economic and politicai background? Clearly de facto division for the
Greek-Cypriot (Republic of Cyprus) did not mean assuming Greek growth rates
(Table 6.9).
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