Bailed-out Cyprus' finance minister says economy faring better than creditors' projections

Cyprus' finance minister says the bailed-out country will manage to keep its debt well below projections by its international creditors.

Harris Georgiades says debt will peak this year at 105 percent of gross domestic product and will show a modest 2-percentage-point drop in 2015.

That' s much better than the 126 percent of GDP that both the European Union and the International Monetary Fund had forecast the debt to reach in 2015 before it starts to fall.

Georgiades told lawmakers Monday that the economy will contract this year by less than 3 percent of GDP.

That's more than a percentage point lower than creditors said in a fifth review of the country's 10-billion-euro ($12.75 billion) rescue program earlier this year.