Economy of Cyprus

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said on Thursday it will end its engagement in Cyprus at the end of this year after completing a six-year mandate in which it invested about 600 million euros. 

The end of the EBRD's mandate means the bank will stop investing in new projects on the island but will continue to manage an existing portfolio.

The collapse of British tour operator Thomas Cook is "credit negative" for Greek and Cypriot banks because it reduces the cash flow of businesses in the tourism sectors of these countries, ratings agency Moody's said in a report on Thursday.

Cyprus has fully repaid a loan it secured from Russia in 2011, its finance minister said on Monday, a debt assumed by the island's former communist-led administration to keep it afloat at the peak of a financing crisis.

The economy of Cyprus has suffered a serious blow from the flight of Russian capital from the island.
The Russian oligarchs who appear to be a pillar of Cyprus' banking system apparently want to stash away their wealth in other countries as the battle to combat money laundering heats up in the EU.

"We should stop the clock on Brexit, take a pause, postpone the exit," Cyprus Finance Minister Haris Georgiades said Tuesday in an interview with Bloomberg in Brussels.

"'Considering where we are; we fully respect the Brexit decision but exiting without a deal, without an arrangement is unthinkable," Georgiades said.

Tourist arrivals in Cyprus for the period of January - October 2018 increased by an annual 7.8 percent to 3.67 million, marking a new record for tourist arrivals for the first ten months of the year.

According to the Cyprus Statistical Service (Cystat), in October 2018 tourist arrivals amounted to 433,617 marking an increase of 6.6 percent compared with October 2017.

TUI holiday operator hopes to bring more German tourists to Cyprus next year, starting in the summer of 2019 while boosting efforts to make the island an all-year-round destination.

Cyprus's financial regulator CySEC issued a warning to the mass of retail currency brokers registered on the island on Wednesday over their use of bonus schemes to encourage trading in risky products and related poor treatment of clients.

[Reuters]

Bank of Cyprus, the East Mediterranean island's largest lender, said Tuesday it would apply for a listing on the London Stock Exchange as part of its restructuring drive.

"We are delighted to be applying for a listing on the London Stock Exchange, which marks another significant step in the bank's transformation," said BoC chairman Josef Ackermann in a statement.

A Cypriot government official says he expects the Melco-Hard Rock Resorts Cyprus consortium to be issued a license to build the east Mediterranean island's first integrated casino resort before the end of the year.

Deputy Minister Constantinos Petrides told AP on Friday that a final assessment of the consortium's successful bid has to be completed before the license is issued.