Cyprus Business Now

The Cyprus Shipping Chamber held its annual charity beach volley tournament in Limassol between September 19 and September 26.

The tournament included the participation of the chamber’s member companies and was held at the Cyprus Federation Volleyball Federation courts in Limassol.

This was the first time the annual tournament took place since 2019 since last year’s event was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

All proceeds generated from the event were donated to the ‘One Dream – One Wish’ charity foundation.

The foundation aims to fulfil the wishes of cancer-afflicted children, support their families financially, as well as provide psychological support to both the children as well as the people close to them.

“The enthusiastic participation of the Chambers’ Member-companies in the Beach-Volley Tournament for over 25 years, proves that the local Shipping community is always in service of humanity and contributes in substance to the Cypriot society,” the Cyprus Shipping Chamber said in a statement.

“The Cyprus Shipping Chamber would like to express its gratitude to its Member-Companies and their employees for contributing with their participation, to the Cyprus Volleyball and Beach Volleyball Referees Association, as well as to the Cyprus Volleyball Federation, which supports the event every year,” the chamber added.

State-owned asset management company Kedipes has paid more than €0.5 billion to the state as part of a state aid repayment plan.

“The Kedipes board of directors approved and executed a new payment to the state in the amount of €50 million for the third quarter of 2021,” Kedipes said on Monday, explaining that the repayment is in the context of the company repaying state aid.

The latest amount brings the total amount repaid to the state to €510 million, with €190 million being paid during 2021.

Earlier this month, Kedipes announced a voluntary retirement scheme in order to reduce the number of its employees.

The Central Bank of Cyprus has released its latest report on monetary financial institutions and their deposit and loan levels for August 2021.

According to the report, total deposits saw a net increase of €495.6 million during that month.

This represents a month-on-month jump of 851 per cent over July when total deposits had a net increase of €51.1 million.

The annual growth rate stood at 4.5 per cent, compared with 4.2 per cent in July 2021.

The total balance of all deposits reached €50.1 billion during the same month.

In terms of loans, their total amount decreased by a net amount of €117.9 million, after seeing a net increase of €107.4 million in July.

The annual growth rate stood at 1.3 per cent, compared with 1,5 per cent in July 2021.

The outstanding amount of total loans reached €29.6 billion during this month.

The economic sentiment in Cyprus deteriorated in September as the Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI-CypERC) decreased by 1.5 points compared with August 2021, according to figures published Monday by the Economics Research Centre (ERC) of the University of Cyprus.

The decrease in the ESI-CypERC resulted from weakened business confidence in services and, to a smaller extent, from a fall in construction confidence.

Moreover, according to the ERC, the Retail Trade Confidence Indicator increased marginally because of more favourable assessments of past sales, despite downward revisions in sales expectations.

The Construction Confidence Indicator deteriorated slightly as a result of downward revisions in employment expectations.

The Cyprus Stock Exchange (CSE) ended Monday, September 27, with profits.

The main Cyprus Stock Market Index was at 66.91 points by 13:35 during the day, reflecting an increase of 1.35 per cent over Friday, September 24.

The FTSE / CySE 20 Index was at 39.97 points, representing a rise of 1.37 per cent. The total value of transactions came up to €83,404.

In terms of sub-indexes, the hotel and main indexes rose by 1.48 per cent, while the investment firms index remained stable.

The biggest investment interest was attracted by Vassiliko Cement Works (€7,991 worth of trades, no change), Logicom (€19,984 worth of transactions, +1.91 per cent), Salamis Tours (+9.76 per cent), and Bank of Cyprus Holdings (+2.97 per cent)