General government accounts posted a surplus of €65.5 million for the period of January–November 2016, compared to a surplus of €11.5 million in the corresponding period of 2015, owing to a reduced balance deficit.

Trade deficit increased in November 2016 by 25% to € 338.508 compared with €270.596 in November 2015.

Hellenic Bank, Cyprus’ third largest lender, said that it signed an agreement with APS Holding s.a. to set up APS Recovery Cyprus Ltd that will manage the bank’s loans in arrears and its real estate assets.

The first airport hotel and conference centre in Cyprus, a Radisson Blu hotel, is scheduled to open in Larnaca in 2019, it was announced recently.

Nicosia Municipality expressed their satisfaction that the island’s capital, along with Paphos, was on the New York Times list of places to visit in 2017.

The Cyprus Energy Regulatory Authority (Cera) has unveiled its latest stopgap proposal ahead of the full opening up of theenergy market.

Loan restructuring in the state-owned cooperative credit sector reached €1.25 billion in 2016, marking an increase of 20% year on year, reducing the NPL ratio to a historic 47% of the Co-op’s total loan book, the CCB Chief Executive Officer Nicholas Hadjiyiannis has said.

The Harmonized Price Index (HICP) for December 2016 increased by 0.1% when compared to December 2015, while for the period between January and December 2016 the HICP recorded a decrease of 1.2% compared to the corresponding period of the previous year.

Bank of Cyprus said that it fully repaid its outstanding emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) to the Central Bank, prior to commencing trading at the London Stock Exchange.

Hermes Airports, which operates Cyprus’ international airports in Larnaca and Paphos, said that it served 8,974,163 passengers in 2016, 18% more than in 2015 and expects the trend to continue in 2017.