The area of construction projects that secured a building permit in January to October last year rose an annual 35% to 1,129,084 square meters, while their value rose 38%, to €1.3bn, the statistical service said.

Gemalto and Bank of Cyprus have teamed up to offer biometric EMV (Europay, MasterCard, and Visa) cards for the latter’s customers.

Greece and Cyprus will sign three separate agreements for stronger cooperation in maritime, cultural and environmental issues in Nicosia next week, it was announced recently.

Revenue from tourism rose in October 2017 an annual 4.2% to €277.1m, against an increase in arrivals of 14%, the statistical service said recently.

Bank of Cyprus (BOC), the island’s largest lender, said that its BOC Asset Management (BOCAM) unit launched operations on December 1, 2017 with the introduction of a mutual fund.

Finance Minister Harris Georgiades says 269 European Investment Bank loans to small and medium-sized businesses over the last three years have helped the economy rebound from an economic crisis that nearly pushed the island-nation into bankruptcy.

Hellenic Bank and Cyprus Cooperative Bank signed a €40m and €25m loan deal with the European Investment Bank (EIB) respectively which will allow them to extend credit to small and medium-size enterprises (SME), the two lenders said.

The Supreme Court has upheld an appeal by the Poseidon consortium that the committee responsible for overseeing the Paphos marina tender process is unlawful.

Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air announced recently it will start flights between Larnaca and Vienna from November 2018.

The unemployment rate fell to 11% in November 2017 from 13.1% in November 2016 but rose from 10.5% in October 2017, said Eurostat.