Cyprus Business Now

The Cyprus-Greece Business Association on Monday released a statement congratulating newly elected president Nicos Christodoulides and wishing him “all the best with his challenging task”.

In its statement, the association welcomed the mention made by the new president of the Republic of Cyprus in his first speech after his election that “our relations with Greece will be strengthened even more”.

Moreover, according to the announcement, the president of the Cyprus-Greece Business Association Iosif Iosif assured Christodoulides that the association is at his disposal for close cooperation, in order to further expand the relations between the two countries, for the benefit of their people.

Finally, Iosif noted that the association will seek a meeting with president Christodoulides immediately after assuming his duties.

Government employment in Cyprus decreased by 1,363 people in January 2023, according to a report released on Monday by the Cyprus Statistical Service (Cystat).

This is primarily attributed to the transfer of hourly staff from the Ministry of Health to the State Health Services Organisation, with the latter falling under the broad public sector category. The transfer took place in January 2023.

According to the statistical service, government employment in January 2023 decreased by 1,363 people, a drop of 2.6 per cent, compared to the corresponding month of 2022 and amounted to 52,019 people in total.

In terms of permanent staff, there was a decrease of 716 people, a drop of 2.7 per cent, with the total number falling from 26,178 to 25,462 people.

Conversely, there was an increase of 1,054 people in temporary staff, a rise of 5.6 per cent.

Staff in this category amounted to 19,991, compared to 18,937 people in January 2022.

What is more, the report noted that in addition to the decrease in hourly staff, which fell by 20.6 per cent, there was also a decrease in security forces personnel, which contracted by 0.3 per cent.

Furthermore, public service personnel increased by 0.4 per cent, while education service staff grew by 2 per cent.

Compared to December 2022, there was an increase of 0.1 per cent in the civil service, followed by an increase of 0.3 per cent in education service staff, and a decrease of 0.5 per cent in security forces personnel.

The Cyprus Stock Exchange (CSE) ended Monday, February 13 with a sharp rise in gains over Friday.

The general Cyprus Stock Market Index was at 99.81 points at 13:04 during the day, reflecting an increase of 2.21 per cent over the previous day of trading.

The FTSE / CySE 20 Index was at 60.28 points, representing a rise of 2.22 per cent.

The total value of transactions came up to €199,646.

In terms of the sub-indexes, the main, alternative and investment firm indexes rose by 2.65 per cent, 0.07 per cent and 1.15 per cent respectively, while the hotel index remained unchanged.

The biggest investment interest was attracted by the Bank of Cyprus (+6.83 per cent), Logicom (-1.5 per cent), Hellenic Bank (+1.94 per cent), Atlantic Insurance (no change), and Blue Island (-6.38 per cent).