Here are the top business stories in Cyprus from the week starting September 28:
“Cyprus goes into the autumn growing faster than almost any other EU economy, but with the same imported problem as everyone else: the war in the Middle East has pushed up the price of oil, and with it the price of everything that moves by road or ship,” Inios said.
With the ECB raising rates again, he added, “the next few months will show how much of the growth reaches household budgets”.
Inios described the starting point as strong. Real GDP grew by 3.8 per cent in 2025, compared with 1.5 per cent in the EU, while the European Commission’s May forecasts still put Cyprus ahead in 2026, at 2.3 per cent against 1.1 per cent for the EU.
The event, held at the Cyprus State Fair last week, also drew more than 2,000 school pupils through organised visits and activities.
This year’s edition, held under the theme “CELEBRATE 2.0 – Two Decades of STEAM-Powered Inspiration”, brought together researchers, academics, scientists, companies and organisations from across Cyprus’ research and innovation sector.
Visitors were able to explore more than 75 exhibition stands and take part in over 80 interactive activities, including experiments, workshops, simulations, games, quizzes and demonstrations.
The company noted that tourism remains one of the most important pillars of the Cypriot economy and has shown considerable resilience in recent years despite successive international challenges and uncertainty.
According to Hermes Airports, this performance reflects the collective efforts of the company, the state, the tourism industry and other stakeholders, which have worked together to maintain the competitiveness of Cyprus as a destination.
Larnaca and Paphos airports continue to play a strategic role by keeping Cyprus connected with international markets and steadily expanding the country’s network of air links.
The new service is aimed at customers with commercial, investment or other financial ties to the Indian market and forms part of the bank’s strategy to develop new international payment corridors.
By allowing transactions to be carried out directly in INR, the service provides greater flexibility in managing international payments, including the settlement of obligations or invoices directly in the currency in which they are denominated.
At the same time, it reduces the need to use intermediary currencies, simplifying the process and contributing to more direct, efficient and cost-effective cross-border transactions.
The service is particularly relevant to businesses operating in India, companies with commercial partnerships or a presence in the country, as well as individuals making payments in INR. It also serves Indian nationals working in Cyprus who wish to make remittances to their home country.
The figures were emphasised by Themis Christophidou, Director-General of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy, during the Cyprus Forum 2026 in Nicosia.
However, official funding data show that the projected 800 businesses and 1,600 jobs relate to the full €50 million New Entrepreneurship Activity Scheme, rather than the €30m allocation alone.
According to the official THALIA 2021–2027 programme, the scheme was split into two calls: €30m launched in 2021 and a further €20m in 2024. The programme estimates that the combined funding will generate 800 new businesses and more than 1,600 jobs.
The Finance Ministry said on Monday that it was assessing geopolitical developments and their impact on households on a daily basis, while a range of measures aimed particularly at vulnerable groups remained in force.
These include zero VAT on a number of basic products, including fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, poultry and fish, baby milk, nappies for children and adults and feminine hygiene products.
A reduced 5 per cent VAT rate on electricity is also applied to around 33,000 low-income households and single-parent families, according to the ministry.
The agreement sets out a framework for closer institutional cooperation and joint initiatives, with particular emphasis on connecting foreign companies choosing Cyprus with technology businesses already operating on the island.
For CITEA, the memorandum also forms part of the direction being pursued by its new board, which is seeking to bring the domestic technology ecosystem closer to organisations, businesses and institutions that can create new opportunities for its members.
The figures were unveiled during the 7th DeepTech CY Meetup, held on September 23 at the university’s Faculty of Engineering, marking the first time the community event has taken place inside a university and placing the discussion directly within one of the institutions producing the research the ecosystem is seeking to commercialise.
The gathering brought together students, researchers, professors, founders and investors to examine how scientific work carried out in Cyprus can move beyond academia and develop into commercially viable companies.
The meetup series was launched earlier in 2026 by Andrei Yarantsaeu and Oleg Reshetnikov as a grassroots community event for people building technology on the island.
The development was emphasised during a meeting between State Aid Control Commissioner Stella Michaelidou and RIF director general Theodoros Loukaidis, as the two bodies discussed the design of funding schemes and changes to the EU’s General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER).
According to the official announcement, RIF relied on just three main GBER articles in 2016 when launching funding programmes.
It now uses ten different provisions, extending support beyond conventional research projects to areas including research infrastructure, process and organisational innovation, professional training, innovation clusters, investment and regional aid, and companies participating in international exhibitions.
“We start by confirming that indeed AI is biased,” Christodoulou said during the fireside discussion “AI and Equal Participation: Who Shapes the Digital State?”, pointing to the data on which AI systems are trained and the people involved in creating them.
The discussion was chaired by Andreas Demetriou, founding member and Legal Advisor of AI³, and Rodoula Papalambrianou, Scientific Coordinator at Hope For Children CRC Policy Center.
Christodoulou explained that AI models do not develop their assumptions in isolation, but learn from existing material that can already contain deeply rooted social stereotypes.
The decision was taken on September 29, as part of the CBC’s supervisory responsibilities under Cyprus’ legislation on the prevention and suppression of money laundering activities.
According to the Central Bank, the fine followed findings from its 2023 inspection concerning the bank’s failure to comply with specific provisions of the relevant law and the CBC’s directive to credit institutions on the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing.
The CBC said that under section 59(6) of the Prevention and Suppression of Money Laundering Activities Law of 2007, as subsequently amended, it may impose measures where a supervised entity fails to comply with Part VIII of the legislation or related Central Bank directives.
Speaking during a discussion at the Cyprus Forum in Nicosia, Charalambous said the Fiscal Council had placed significant emphasis on the economic consequences of climate change in its recently published 2026 interim report, treating the issue as a potential risk to the sustainability of the public finances.
“Generally, the situation is concerning,” he said, adding that Cyprus is “behind on storage”, an area considered particularly important if renewable energy is to account for a larger share of electricity production.
He also pointed to weaknesses in recycling, waste management and energy efficiency, saying Cyprus had fallen behind the targets it has set itself.
Financial Commissioner Valentina Georgiadou, Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Cyprus (ICPAC) general director Andreas Papadatos and Glafkos Clerides Institute vice-president Irena Georgiadou examined how supervision can keep pace with rapidly changing technology without holding back innovation.
Valentina Georgiadou noted that financial services are changing at a pace that makes it difficult for the regulatory framework to adjust at the same speed, placing greater emphasis on effective consumer protection and stronger coordination between supervisory authorities.
She stressed that “security and trust” remain fundamental to the sector’s development, as consumers are more willing to invest when they know there is a mechanism to protect them if something goes wrong.
The findings come from the Spring/Summer 2026 Limassol Chamber Business Barometer, the 18th edition of the survey carried out by the Limassol Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Evel), which examines the concerns, expectations and investment plans of businesses in the district.
The survey ran from April 30 to June 9 and received 67 responses, down 15 per cent from autumn 2025 and the third-lowest participation since the Barometer was launched in 2016. The Chamber therefore cautioned that the smaller sample, particularly within individual sectors, limits the extent to which wider conclusions can be drawn.
The shortage of skilled labour remained the most frequently cited problem, accounting for 17.8 per cent of responses, although its share fell from 22.5 per cent six months earlier. Difficulties involving government departments followed at 16.1 per cent, while concern over high labour costs climbed sharply to 13.3 per cent, from 7.9 per cent in autumn 2025.
In an exclusive interview with the Cyprus Mail, Szabo said the new connection was an important addition to Wizz Air’s Larnaca network and reflected the airline’s broader strategy of strengthening Cyprus’ links with European destinations.
“We are very excited about the launch of Madrid,” Szabo said.
“It is an important addition to our network from Larnaca and another step in strengthening the connectivity between Cyprus and Spain,” he added.
Szabo said the route would give passengers in Cyprus direct access to Madrid while also making Cyprus more accessible to Spanish travellers throughout the year.
The company spoke exclusively to the Cyprus Mail about its origins in Cyprus, its work across finance and energy, and its ambition to develop Limassol into a centre for quantum software research.
Superpositions Studio was created to address what it described as a fundamental problem in the quantum computing industry, namely that companies are increasingly interested in the technology but often struggle to determine whether it can solve a particular business problem.
“Exactly that ‘do not yet know’ is the problem,” the company said.
More than $40 billion has been invested in quantum computers worldwide and more than €11 billion in Europe, according to the company, while the machines themselves are already operating.
Yet businesses considering quantum computing have traditionally faced a choice between hiring specialist staff, who are scarce and can cost more than $150,000 a year, or commissioning consultancy work costing around $50,000 and taking months to produce a report. Superpositions Studio aims to turn that expert process into software.
Revenue reached €513m in July 2025, while for the first seven months of 2026 it stood at €1.76 billion, down 7.0 per cent from €1.89 billion during the same period last year.
The July increase came as tourists spent considerably more during their visits, with average expenditure per person rising 5.7 per cent to €920.66, from €870.78 a year earlier.
Total tourist arrivals fell slightly from 589,116 to 582,754, while the average length of stay declined from nine days to 8.6 days.
Despite the shorter stays, average expenditure per day increased from €96.75 to €107.05.
The increase in Cyprus compared with the second quarter of 2025 was above the 4.7 per cent rise recorded across the EU and the 4.0 per cent increase in the euro area.
Cyprus also recorded stronger quarterly growth, with house prices rising 2.4 per cent between the first and second quarters of 2026, compared with increases of 1.2 per cent in the EU and 1.1 per cent in the euro area.
The latest Cystat figures showed that Cyprus’ House Price Index reached 105.46 points in the second quarter, up from 102.95 in the first quarter and 97.74 a year earlier.
The annual increase represented a sharp acceleration from the 3.4 per cent recorded in Cyprus in the first quarter of 2026.
The figures gave Cyprus an enterprise birth rate of 9.70 per cent, compared with a provisional enterprise death rate of 5.90 per cent.
The data put Cyprus below the EU average for business creation but also showed a considerably lower rate of enterprise deaths than the bloc as a whole.
Across the EU, 3,541,482 enterprises were created in 2024, giving the bloc an enterprise birth rate of 10.36 per cent.
A provisional 3,143,782 enterprises ceased trading during the year, corresponding to a provisional death rate of 9.20 per cent.
The presentation, titled “Inflation in Cyprus 2025-2026: From the energy shock to a fiscally prudent response”, examines the evolution of inflation, the contribution of energy, food and services, and the fiscal options available for supporting vulnerable groups.
The council described a sharp reversal in Cyprus’ inflation position, with the country moving from the lowest inflation rate in the European Union in 2025 to the third-highest in August 2026.
Cyprus recorded average inflation of 0.8 per cent in 2025, the lowest rate in the EU, with inflation close to zero between July and December.
The increase began in March 2026, when inflation reached 1.5 per cent, amid the crisis in Iran and disruption around the Strait of Hormuz.
By August, inflation had reached 5.2 per cent, according to the council.
The council said the speed of the increase demonstrated “the unusually high sensitivity of Cyprus to an external energy shock”.
The figure covers January to March and reflects Cyprus’ status as a single statistical region because of the country’s small size compared to most other EU member states.
Eurostat published the figures on Friday as part of its latest data on short-stay accommodation offered through online platforms, with national data available for the second quarter of 2026 and regional data for the first quarter.
The data showed that 258.8 million nights were spent across the European Union between April and June 2026, representing an increase of 5.3 per cent, or 13.1 million nights, compared with the second quarter of 2025.
Compared with the second quarter of 2024, the number of nights spent in EU short-term rental accommodation was 23.9 per cent higher, equivalent to an increase of 50.0 million nights.
At regional level, Cyprus was counted as a single region, meaning its 1,013,843 guest nights for the first quarter represent the total for the country.
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