The government is planning to construct a jetty at Vassilikos port to host a floating storage facility for liquefied natural gas (LNG) to be used for power production, it emerged recently.

News this week of the outcome at the Onisiphoros well generated all sorts of reaction, but for experts the main takeaway is that the gas find – albeit a small one – holds great promise for the future because it has scientifically confirmed the existence of a carbonate platform around the Eratosthenes Seamount south of the island.

In May, non-performing loans in the Cypriot banking system fell by €127.2m in a month to €23bn or 46.2% of the total mainly on a drop in corporate loans, the Central Bank of Cyprus said.

Finance Minister Harris Georgiades welcomed the latest rating by Standard & Poor’s (S&P) that placed the sovereign credit rating outlook of Cyprus from stable to positive.

Total nominal hourly labour costs rose in Cyprus 0.4% in the second quarter of 2017 compared with the respective quarter last year, which was the third lowest in the EU, the European Commission’s statistical office said.

The Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC) is considering issuing lenders new targets to reduce delinquent loans shifting the focus from restructurings to non-performing loan ratios and encouraging banks to go hard on strategic defaulters, a bank official said recently.

Cyprus has entered a period of real sustainable economic growth, Finance Minister Harris Georgiades said recently in an interview with the Cyprus News Agency, stressing that despite the creation of fiscal space, fiscal discipline should continue.

Although Limassol tops the list when it comes to the number of properties sold in Cyprus so far this year, Paphos is king in terms of the percentage of property being sold to non-Cypriots.

The Onisiforos well in Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ) is estimated to have less than half a trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas, Energy Minister Yiorgos Lakkotrypis said recently.

The harmonised consumer price index rose in August 2017 an annual 0.5% mainly as the island’s hospitality industry passes energy price increases to consumers as it operates on full capacity, the statistical service said.