The 2018 Cyprus Country Report features interviews, detailed sector profiles and cutting edge insights from Cyprus’ most influential political, economic and business leaders.

The government generated a fiscal surplus of €514.7m on a cash basis in the first seven months of 2018, compared with €217.2m a year before, the statistical service said.

The amount on deposit in the Cypriot banking system rose by €796.4m in July 2018 in a month to €50.9bn, the highest since March 2013, amid an ongoing deleveraging which reduced total credit by €74.7m to €46.2bn, the lowest in more than ten years, the Central Bank of Cyprus said.

Irish Banker John Patrick Hourican will remain at the helm of the Bank of Cyprus, the island’s largest lender, until the end of 2020.

Bank of Cyprus said that it generated a net loss of €55.8m in the first six month of 2018 compared with a €553.4m loss the previous year and that it agreed to sell a large amount of its non-performing loans portfolio.

As Hellenic Bank officially takes over parts of the Co-op bank by the end of the week, its management is assessing which branches to shutter, an executive said recently.

Egypt has nothing to fear from the ongoing renegotiations concerning the Cyprus natural gas deal, an Egyptian official has said.

Two and-a-half years after Cyprus completed its adjustment programme geopolitics are threatening to upset economic recovery, economists have said.

Rating momentum for Western European sovereigns remained positive in recent months, with three rating upgrades – Cyprus, Greece and Andorra – since April 2018 and no downgrades, Fitch Ratings said recently.

Residential property prices rose for a seventh consecutive quarter 0.6% in January to March of 2018 compared with the previous quarter, the highest rate since the end of 2009, the Central Bank of Cyprus said.