The Cyprus chamber of commerce and industry (Keve) elected Christodoulos Angastiniotis as its new chief at its annual general assembly, following the departure of Phidias Pilides, who served the maximum allowed two terms at the chamber’s helm over the last six years.

The central government had €1.5bn deposited at its account at the Central Bank of Cyprus at the end of October 2017, less than a week before a partial repayment of its debt to the bank supervisor, the latter said.

Moody’s Investors Services said that despite the Cypriot economy’s robust growth the strong fiscal performance faces challenges related to its small size, relative lack of diversification and high levels of indebtedness.

On Monday, November 20th 2017, President of Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi arrived to Cyprus, a day ahead of the Trilateral Meeting among Cyprus, Greece and Egypt which takes place in Nicosia, with the participation of Anastasiades and Sisi, as well as Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

Cyprus has increased the number of tourists by an extra million visitors in only two years, and 93% of visitors say they would return, according to Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) chairman Angelos Loizou.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) expects that the increase in coverage ratios in Cyprus may lead to a higher reduction in non-performing loans (NPLs) in the coming quarters, something that was also observed in banks of other European countries.

Italian energy firm ENI is planning two exploratory drills for natural gas in the island’s exclusive economic zone in the next couple of months, officials said recently.

Wedding tourism contributes €110 million a year to the economy, the Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) said recently.

Cabinet approved recently a proposal by Transport Minister Marios Demetriades to sign an agreement with the United Kingdom to acquire a piece of land near Vassilikos, in Limassol to construct an industrial and energy port that could be used by the hydrocarbon industry.

Brexit is expected to have a marginally negative but manageable impact on the Cyprus economy, as confirmed by the annual report of the Central Bank of Cyprus of December 2016. This conclusion is based both on the flexibility demonstrated by the tourism sector over the years and a gradual decline in reliance on the United Kingdom market, as well as the partial mitigation of the impact of a drop in the export of services to the United Kingdom from lower costs for the import of goods and services.