Global insurance sector growth is expected to remain weak, and companies must focus on technology and innovative initiatives that optimize costs, drive wider distribution and market reach and explore local niche market segments, to spur growth reveals EY Insurance Outlook 2019. The latest editions of EY insurance outlook series ‒ covering the three regions, Americas, Asia-Pacific and Europe ‒ are the result of several think tank sessions of EY industrial and functional professionals as well as strategists and technologists.

A discussion on Cyprus was organised by Invest Cyprus during the Vibrant Gujarat 2019 Global Investment Summit, which took place in India from January 18 to 20, with the participation of over 45,000 personalities from 100 countries.

The foundation stone for the new private power plant at Vassiliko, PEC Power will take place next month, it was announced recently.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) into Cyprus from 2014 to 2017 came to approximately €9.2bn, of which €4.8bn derived from the various naturalisation schemes, the Commerce Ministry has stated.

Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) in the Cyprus banking system marked a €5.6 billion reduction since the end of June 2018. NPLs dropped from a total of €16.6 billion to €11.02 billion in September 2018, as Hellenic Bank acquired the performing part of the Cyprus Cooperative Bank, converting it to an asset management company.

The general government deficit rose to €1.050bn in the third quarter of 2018 as a result of the state’s divestment of the ‘good part’ of the Cyprus Cooperative Bank, the statistical office has reported.

Moody’s rating agency said the decline of non-performing exposures (NPEs) by €5.6bn, or 33.6%, stemming from the resolution of the co-operative bank (CCB) is a credit positive for the Cypriot banking system because it reduces asset quality risks and supports depositor confidence.

Inflation in Cyprus dropped to 1.0% in December 2018, down from 1.6% in November, while a year earlier the same rate was -0.4%, Eurostat said recently.

A historic high of just under four million tourists visited Cyprus in 2018, which was a 7.8% increase compared with 2017, date from the statistical service (Cystat) showed recently.

EY’s Transaction Advisory Services (TAS) practice has received two awards at the Mergermarket M&A Awards 2018 for Europe ceremony organised by Mergermarket, an independent mergers and acquisitions intelligence and data provider. The Mergermarket M&A Awards are the top accolades in the deal industry in Europe.