One of the two ExxonMobil research vessels scheduled to carry out explorations in block 10 of Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ) has departed from Greece and is headed towards Limassol port, according to marinetraffic.com.

Accelerating the reduction of non-performing loans continues to be a key objective, a senior Central Bank official said recently, noting however that a new legal framework that could have helped is largely unenforceable.

Cyprus’s economy expanded 3.9% in the fourth quarter of 2017, compared to the same period the previous year, and a seasonally adjusted 3.9%, the statistical service said.

The unemployment rate in the last three months of 2017 fell to 10.1%, from 12.8% in the fourth quarter of 2016, the statistical service said citing its labour force survey.

Construction output is expected to pick up further as building permits for 2017 show a 47% increase in the construction area of projects that received the go-ahead from local authorities, to 1,542,663 square metres, compared to 2016, the statistical service said.

Israel expects a decision to go ahead with the construction of a 2,000 kilometre pipeline linking vast eastern Mediterranean gas resources to Europe to be made by early 2019, Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz told Reuters.

Cyprus last week paid €312.5m to the Russian Federation as a first instalment of a €2.5bn loan agreed more than six years ago and restructured in 2013, a Finance Ministry source said.

The administrator of the defunct Cyprus Popular Bank has received an offer from a Maltese fund to buy its stake in Malta’s Lombard Bank, a move favoured by the regulator.