Energy Minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis said recently the results of an ongoing exploratory natural gas drill off the island’s coast were encouraging but more time was needed because of the morphology of the seabed.

The European Investment Bank is to give €35 million to the Cyprus Organisation for Storage and Management of Oil Stocks (COSMOS) to build a 210,000 tonne privately owned storage facility.

The rate of unemployment in Cyprus rose on a monthly basis in December 2017 to 11.3%, from un upwards revised 11.1% in November, the European Commission’s statistical service said.

The maritime demarcation agreement with Cyprus paved the way for Egypt to grant concession areas for international companies in deep waters, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi said.

Bank of Cyprus said that the approval of its asset management company BOCAM by the European Central Bank (ECB) relates solely to its capital injection to the subsidiary.

CountryProfiler will publish the 2018 edition of the Cyprus Country Report in March. The publication, produced in cooperation with the Ministry of Energy, Commerce, Industry and Tourism, is widely regarded by Cypriot and international executives as the most influential and trusted resource on doing business in Cyprus.

Real economic activity in Cyprus is expected to continue to expand at robust rates in 2018, according to the Economics Research Center of the University of Cyprus.

Economic Sentiment reached an all time high in January 2018 in Cyprus, peaking at 117.8 points (highest value since the introduction of the index in 1990), according to the Directorate General of Economy and Finances of the European Commission.

The Finance Ministry issued a €100 million in 13-week Treasury Bills with yields declining to -0.16%, the Public Debt Management Office (PDMO) announced.

In 2016, the share of energy from renewable sources (RES) in gross final consumption of energy reached 17% in the European Union (EU), double the share in 2004 (8.5%), the first year for which the data are available.