The first commercial deal for the EastMed pipeline was signed in Athens on Thursday between Greece’s Public Gas Corporation (Depa) and Energean, ahead of the intergovernmental agreement between Cyprus, Greece and Israel.

President Nicos Anastasiades will on Thursday hold separate meetings with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Athens, where the three leaders will sign an intergovernmental agreement for the EastMed pipeline project.

An increase of close to 7% in winter tourism in one year means Cyprus is one of the EU member states with the highest increase in winter tourism, according to newly published Eurostat figures.

Monthly earnings of employees in the third quarter of 2019 increased by 3% on an annual basis but there is still a gender pay gap, provisional data by the Cyprus Statistical Service show.

RCB Bank said it has conducted the first transactions of Russian Mir cards in the European Union.

The population of Cyprus is among the healthiest in Europe and life expectancy is at 82.2 (84.2 women, 80.2 men) compared to 80.9 years which is the bloc’s average.

The head of the private hospital’s association Pasin on Friday were discussing a proposal offered to them by Gesy overseer Health Insurance Organisation (HIO) to join the national health scheme.

Cyprus’ tourism strategy going into 2020 will be to seek out new markets now that the island’s two main markets, the UK and Russia appear to have stabilised and are predicted to remain so in the coming two to three years, deputy minister Savvas Perdios said on Friday.

Credit rating agencies are getting ready for a new outlook on Cyprus’ economy but not before they see developments in the state of play of non-performing loans and of the ever-high government payroll.

Retail trade turnover in Cyprus increased in October 2019 compared to the corresponding month of the previous year, according to provisional estimates released by the Statistical Service of Cyprus.