Limassol has been a foreign investment magnet for decades, transforming itself into a city with landmark buildings, high rents and trade, and its success allowed it to survive the recent crisis comparatively unscathed.

High-level government officials from Cyprus, Greece, Israel and Italy plan to meet in February 2017 to discuss a natural gas pipeline from the East Mediterranean fields to Greece and Italy, according to press reports.

The net amount of outstanding loans in the Cypriot banking system dropped by €98m in December 2016 in a month to €54.4bn, as net deposits also fell by €74.9m to €49bn, the Central Bank of Cyprus said.

Hellenic Bank said that it set up a webpage to promote real property in its possession at https://www.hbreonline.com managed by its Property Management Unit.

The dismantling of the oil and gas installations which have been a part of Larnaca for more than 50 years was officially launched recently in the presence of Energy Minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis and other officials who all called it an ‘historic day’.

The economic sentiment indicator rose in January 2017, for the fifth consecutive month, by 0.4 units to 117.4, which is a new post-June-2001 high, mainly on increased business confidence in services and construction, the University of Cyprus said.

Andrus Ansip, Vice-President of the European Commission for the Digital Single Market, is in Cyprus to meet with national authorities and stakeholders.

The expansion of real economic activity in Cyprus is expected to continue in 2017 at rates similar to those registered in 2016, according to the economic outlook for 2017 published by the Economics Research Centre of the University of Cyprus.

Bank of Cyprus aims at attracting institutional investors for longer term placement in the bank’s share, days after its London Stock Exchange listing, said the bank’s chief executive officer John Hourican.

Approximately 2,000 more tourists from Egypt visited Cyprus in 2016 compared to 2015, the Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) said recently.