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favourable circumstances: industriai peace, the Lebanese influx, a booming Middle
Eastern market for Cypriot manufactured goods, a good harvest enhanced by good
international prices for (the much curtailed Greek) Cypriot food exports, were
exploited by the well developed human capital resources and turned into a rapid
recovery.
This chapter draws a rough sketch of the economy of the (mostly Greek Cypriot)
Republic of Cyprus, before and after 1974, attempting to draw a distinction
between these two long term developmental phases. Generally it argues that, whilst
war was a personal tragedy for many, and perhaps the island as a whole, many
favourable circumstances (exogenous or otherwise) contributed to the recovery and
war ultimately acted as an economic accelerator. After the immediate conséquences
of war had abated, war and the de facto loss of territory led to the concentration of
more Greek-Cypriot resources, in more dynamic areas of the economy.
A snap-shot of the economy as it grapples with independence; an overview of
the economy of the Republic of Cyprus 1960-1970.
When Cyprus gained independence in 1960, it is thought to have done so as an
under-developed British colony 3 . If the World Bank had produced a "World
Development Report" in 1960, and Cyprus had been included, it would have been
ranked above Spain, Lebanon, Greece, South Africa and Singapore and below
3,1 Cyprus is a less-developed country only in the sense that much of its present production is not
based on modem techniques, that it needs more capital investment, and that its level of living is low.
It is certainly not underdeveloped in the sense that... vast natural resources [are] idly waiting to be
utilised. To some extent, Cyprus may be regarded as over-developed in the sense of being exhausted.
The present problems of drought, soil érosion, and water shortage are in part the product of past
errors in the protection and préservation of natural resources. " UN. Programme of Technical
Assistance, 1961. Cvprus - Suggestions for a Development Programme, (the 'Thorp Report').
Prepared by Willard L. Thorp. NY: UN, page 1, paragraph 1.
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