Cyprus Business Now

The Association for the Protection of Borrowers (Syprodat) on Tuesday released a statement in which it requests meetings with House Speaker Annita Demetriou, Central Bank Governor Constantinos Herodotou, as well as political parties, in order to discuss possible measures to mitigate soaring inflation and the high cost of living.

The association explained that these ongoing issues are eating into borrowers’ income, with the implication being that this may in turn affect their ability to pay back their loans.

“For our part, we will start contacts with everyone to push for alleviating measures and any other possible reliefs that can be implemented,” the association said in an announcement.

According to the association, the request for a meeting with the Speaker of the House, the CBC governor, and the political parties, was put forward in order “for all of us to join forces for the good of borrowers, households, businesses and the greater good of society”.

“We stress this to everyone, borrowers are not begging, they rightfully demand what they should get and they will get it”, Syprodat added.

The association noted that it has already scheduled a meeting with ruling party Disy’s deputy president Harris Georgiades, which is due to take place on October 14.

The value of the Cyprus Stock Exchange, in terms of shares, reached €2.07 billion at the end of September 2022, from €2.06 billion at the end of August, according to the CSE’s monthly report.

In addition, the total value of the market, including the Bond Market, reached €3.52 billion from €3.49 billion in the previous month, marking an increase of 0.76 per cent.

Based on the data for the aforementioned period, the Main Market constitutes 34.76 per cent of the total market value, the Alternative Market 22.38 per cent, the Surveillance Market 1.58 per cent and the Bond Market 41.28 per cent.

During the last trading session of September 2022, the General Index reached 73.71 points, showing a relative increase of 1.11 per cent, which was accompanied by an increase in the total volume of transactions by 17.64 per cent, compared to the previous month.

Moreover, the total trading volume for the month amounted to €4.93 million, with the average daily trading volume standing at €0.22 million.

Total motor vehicle registrations in Cyprus rose in September 2022, going against the broader trend observed during the first nine months of the year, according to a report released this week by the Cyprus Statistical Service (Cystat).

According to the report, there were 3,412 motor vehicle registrations in September 2022, an increase of 2.6 per cent compared to 3,327 in September 2021.

Saloon passenger car registrations increased by 6.9 per cent, rising to 2,738, up from 2,561 in September 2021.

The total number of registered vehicles decreased by 4.0 per cent in the period between January and September 2022, reaching 26,581, compared to 27,699 during the same period of 2021.

What is more, passenger saloon car registrations fell in the first nine months of 2022 by 0.7 per cent to 21,183, compared to 21,336 in the corresponding period of 2021.

Of the total passenger saloon cars, 9,071 (42.8 per cent) were new vehicles, while 12,112 (57.2 per cent) were used cars. Rental cars saw a 74.6 per cent increase to 3,479.

The Cyprus Stock Exchange (CSE) ended Tuesday, October 11 with losses.

The general Cyprus Stock Market Index was at 74.02 points at 13:51 during the day, reflecting a drop of 0.23 per cent over the previous day of trading.

The FTSE / CySE 20 Index was at 44.41 points, which represents a decrease of 0.22 per cent.

The total value of transactions came up to €30,356.

In terms of the sub-indexes, the main, alternative, hotel and investment firm indexes all declined, falling by 0.27 per cent, 0.18 per cent, 0.91 per cent and 0.94 per cent respectively.

The biggest investment interest was attracted by the Bank of Cyprus (-0.38 per cent), the Cyprus Cement Public Company (no change), Atlantic Insurance (-0.64 per cent), and Hellenic Bank (no change).