Leading employers believe the controversial Cyprus passport for investment scheme should be maintained, improved and its resources redirected from property deals to funding industry as well.

The island’s Ministry of Finance forecasts a budget deficit for the period 2020-2023 and an increase in public debt as a percentage of GDP in 2020 due to fresh economic conditions sparked by the coronavirus.

Labour Minister Zeta Emilianides on Thursday unveiled government schemes worth €31m aimed at supporting employment, as Cyprus feels the squeeze of the coronavirus crisis.

EY Cyprus is pleased to announce the launch of TaxLegi, a specialised monthly newsletter (blog) that provides insights and EY perspectives mainly on Tax and Legal aspects, utilising both current news and blog articles produced by our Tax and Legal team.

The island’s travel agents are getting ready for next year in a bid to turn around the pandemic’s negative impact on tourism, with arrivals until the end of 2020 not expected to exceed one fourth of last year’s four million, it emerged on Wednesday.

In the second quarter of 2020 house prices, as measured by the House Price Index, rose by 5.0% in the euro area, by 5.2% in the EU and dropped by 2.9% in Cyprus compared with the same quarter of the previous year, according to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. In the first quarter 2020 house prices rose by 5.1%, 5.6% and 1.1%  respectively.

The Steamship Mutual Underwriting Association’s new European office in Limassol gives prestige and consolidates Cyprus as a quality cluster of international maritime activities, the island’s junior minister for shipping said.

The health minister Constantinos Ioannou, accompanied by members of the government’s coronavirus task force, gave a press conference on Wednesday noon to outline the development of the coronavirus pandemic, since its outbreak in the Republic of Cyprus some seven months ago.

The Republic of Cyprus on Tuesday downgraded four countries in its three-tier risk-based classification of countries, with the updated travel list to come into effect on October 9.

Cyprus has had one of the smallest per capita imports of extra face masks in the EU in the first half of 2020, at €8 per person, Eurostat reported.