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Cyprus will lift on Monday all the capital controls it imposed in 2013 amid a chaotic bailout, President Nicos Anastasiades said on Friday.

"The lifting of the last restrictions marks the final restoration of confidence in our banking system," Anastasiades said during a televised press conference on the economy.

“As a result of the hard work by everybody and the consistency in implementing the obligations we undertook, 24 months after the assumption of the governance, today we can speak with certainty of a course of total reversal of an unprecedented crisis we were called to deal with.

I would like to reiterate that within this period of time, not only did we manage to belie the assessments and predictions referring to a total collapse of the economy, but we managed to avert total collapse and at the same time to restore the international credibility of our country, to stabilize our banking system and we are now in a course of recovery and exit from the Memorandum”.

With determination, we took particularly difficult decisions and we implemented a very difficult, but necessary, programme, without overlooking the social role of the state”, President Anastasiades said.

Cyprus introduced the controls in April 2013 to prevent outflows after Laiki Bank was closed and the Bank of Cyprus seized deposits to recapitalise.

Since then controls have been gradually eased. The last remaining, included in a Finance Ministry decree last month, required authorities' approval for businesses sending large remittances overseas, and individual travelers moving more than €10,000 out of the country.

Asked about the timing of the easing while Greece was in crisis over its own bailout programme, Anastasiades said "We want to hope that there will be no further deepening of the crisis with Greece."

Cypriot banks, he said, had fully severed their links with the Greek banking system following the 2013 crisis.

The President also announced a decision by the Cabinet on Thursday to immediately call for tenders for the implementation of development projects included in the budget, of a value of €200 million, for 2015, mainly concerning major environmental and town planning projects, sewerage and infrastructure projects, as well as projects for the improvement of road infrastructure, as well as the integration of new additional mature projects for immediate implementation of a value of €80 million, which include the upgrading of hospitals, the construction of new health centers, the construction and upgrading of existing education centers, tourist infrastructure, as well as the upgrading of road networks.

He also announced the extension of programmes of the European Investment Bank, a series of measures for the unemployed through nine programmes regarding the subsidy of employment, the gaining of working experience and the training of unemployed people, at a cost of €58 million, and the extension of the period for providing town planning incentives.

Anastasiades said that to achieve speedy implementation of the development projects, carried out through public tenders, and improvement of the entire system, the Cabinet decided a series of measures that speed up the tender process, while at the same time ensuring transparency. To this end, four bills have been prepared, which are before the Law Office of the Republic for legal processing and expected to be submitted for voting to the House of Representatives.

Finally, the President reiterated the Government’s determination to continue implementing policies and actions, which will allow the final return to the markets and to the path of growth, the facing of umemployment, the further support of the vulnerable population groups and the exit from the Memorandum.

“We have proven that we move forward with specific and well-balanced programme, the overcoming of the difficulties is not random, and the measures announced today will not be the last ones”, President Anastasiades concluded.