The US sees Cyprus as an important partner in its wider region and was working to build a stronger political relationship with the country, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Matthew Palmer has said.

DP World Limassol, operator of the New Passenger Terminal at Limassol Port, has reaffirmed its commitment to establishing Limassol port as a major cruise hub in the Mediterranean Sea.

The European Central Bank said recently it had restarted buying Cypriot bonds under its stimulus programme after an upgrade to the country’s credit rating, and pledged to make up slowly for its 2-1/2-year exclusion from ECB buying.

Cyprus Casinos ‘C2, the island’s first licensed casino in Limassol has seen more than 175,000 individual guests and 13,000 registered members of the C2 Rewards Club loyalty programme, since it opened its doors to the public on June 28, operators Melco said recently.

The government generated a fiscal deficit of €18.7 million in the second quarter of 2018 compared to a shortfall of €86.5m in the respective three-month period last year, the statistical service said recently.

Entrepreneurs struggling to service their loans have opted for debt to asset swaps which has left banks with significant property portfolios.

Paphos has again won a Gold Quality Award as a top sustainable coastal tourist destination for 2018.

Cyprus’ economy has come out of the 2013 “cardiac arrest” and posted four years of growth, Bank of Cyprus CEO John Patrick Hourican said in an interview with Bloomberg television recently, a statement echoed both by the Hellenic Bank CEO Ioannis Matsis and Finance Minister Harris Georgiades in similar interviews.

Three satellite casinos are expected to launch operations in December 2018 — one each in Nicosia, Larnaca and Paphos, while that in the free Famagusta area should be up and running before the summer of 2019, according to press reports.

Italy is committed to the implementation of the EastMed pipeline project, the country’s Ambassador to Cyprus, Andrea Cavallari, has told the Cyprus News Agency (CNA), underlining the importance of this project in terms of creating a new route for energy supply to Europe.