The profit share of non-financial corporations in Cyprus reached 42.9 per cent in 2024, standing above the EU average of 40.1 per cent, according to Eurostat data published on Friday.

Across the bloc, the profit share, the percentage of value added that remunerates capital rather than labour, declined by 1.6 percentage points from the previous year.

Cyprus remained above the EU mean, while the wider trend showed continued softening. In the EU, the profit share had stood at 40.4 per cent in 2004, rising to 42.1 per cent in 2007 before years of decline brought it to a two-decade low of 39.5 per cent in 2012.

Since then, the pattern has been uneven, with an increase from 40.2 per cent in 2020 to 42.1 per cent in 2021, followed by modest declines to 41.9 per cent in 2022, 41.7 per cent in 2023 and a sharper fall to 40.1 per cent last year.

Across member states, Ireland continued to record the highest profit share at 74.9 per cent, largely reflecting the presence of foreign-owned multinationals with highly capital-intensive operations.

Malta followed at 56.4 per cent, with Slovakia at 48.9 per cent.

In the contrary, the lowest values were reported in France (32.2 per cent), Slovenia (33.4 per cent) and Portugal (34.5 per cent).