Cyprus Business Now

Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou addressed the 18th Real Estate, Land Development, Planning, and Construction Conference on Wednesday, outlining recent developments in the real estate sector, as well as the government’s priorities regarding urban development.

Ioannou commenced his speech by commending the initiative taken to organise the conference, providing professionals in the real estate and land development sector with a platform to scrutinise recent market trends.

“The construction sector is witnessing rapid changes, necessitating flexibility and adaptability from industry professionals and governmental bodies to foster development,” he said.

The Cyprus Chamber of Commerce & Industry (Keve) on Wednesday successfully held its ‘Cyprus-Estonia: Promoting Bilateral Collaborations‘ event, as part of the official visit of the President of Estonia Alar Karis to Cyprus.

According to a Keve statement, the main aim of the event was to strengthen bilateral relations and foster partnerships between Cypriot and Estonian businesses in the fields of shipping, cybersecurity, and information technology.

In his welcome address, Keve president Stavros Stavrou praised the strategic partnership between Cyprus and Estonia as EU members.

Cyprus took part in the International Food and Drink Event (IFE) this week, promoting a number of products at the three-day international food and beverage event, that opened its doors on Monday at the ExCel exhibition centre in London.

According to a statement released on Tuesday, the Ministry of Energy, Commerce, and Industry, in collaboration with the Cyprus Trade Centre in London, spearheaded participation in the international exhibition.

The Finance Ministry on Wednesday released a statement welcoming the outcomes of the European Commission’s recent in-depth review, highlighting that they “demonstrate the government’s sound economic policies and efforts to address the macroeconomic imbalances facing the Cypriot economy”.

The European Commission’s report, released earlier this week, noted that Cyprus’ economy is on a healthy trajectory, expecting both GDP to grow and inflation to decrease.

“The government remains focused on implementing policies that ensure further correction of imbalances and enhance the competitiveness of the Cypriot economy, with particular emphasis on the green and digital transitions,” the Finance Ministry said.

Cyprus saw a decrease in net demand for new business loans in the final quarter of 2023, continuing a downward trend observed since the first quarter of 2022, albeit to a lesser extent than the decline originally expected.

However, according to the Central Bank of Cyprus’ (CBC) survey on bank lending for the fourth quarter of 2023, the net demand for housing loans remained unchanged, halting a declining trend that had been ongoing since the beginning of 2022.

Regarding business loans, the CBC noted on Wednesday that the decrease in demand “is attributed to the generally high level of interest rates”.

The Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Society Cyprus recently held an educational interactive day focused on private equity and investment funds.

The event involved the presence of members of the association, along with high-ranking executives of auditing and consulting firms.

According to an announcement by the CFA Society Cypruts, the topic of the seminar was presented by Steve Balaban, CFA, of the private equity training provider Mink Learning.

International rating agency, Morningstar DBRS this week slightly downgraded its estimates for Cyprus’ economic growth in 2024 to 2.4 per cent, compared to the 2.5 per cent forecasted in December.

However, it significantly upgraded the growth projection for 2025, raising it to 2.4 per cent from the previous rate of 2 per cent it originally forecasted in December 2023.

The agency’s updated assessments in March 2024 also indicate a further reduction in unemployment in Cyprus to 6.1 per cent from the previously anticipated 6.4 per cent by December.

The Cyprus Stock Exchange (CSE) ended Wednesday, March 27 with losses.

The general Cyprus Stock Market Index was at 144.36 points at 12:54 during the day, reflecting a decrease of 0.10 per cent over the previous day of trading.

The FTSE / CySE 20 Index was at 87.68 points, representing a drop of 0.07 per cent.

The total value of transactions came up to €189,327, until the aforementioned time during trading.

In terms of the sub-indexes, the main, alternative, and hotel indexes fell by 0.03 per cent, 0.07 per cent and 0.24 per cent respectively.

The biggest investment interest was attracted by the Bank of Cyprus (-1.64 per cent), Hellenic Bank (+0.85 per cent), Demetra (no change), Salamis Tours (+0.53 per cent), and Woolworth Cyprus Properties (+9.24 per cent).