The general government in generated in January to November 2016 a budget surplus of €65.5m on a cash basis which was almost six times higher than that of 2015, the Finance Ministry said.

The House Finance Committee recently began discussing a bill allowing banks to rent as well as perform maintenance on repossessed properties on their books to make them more marketable.

The government will try hard to get a deal for selling gas from Cyprus’ Aphrodite field to Egypt in 2017 but finds the prospect somewhat distant because oil prices are expected to remain high for the foreseeable future.

The Sotira Municipality presented its key to the city to the Chinese investors who will be building the village’s first private tourism investment ‘Sun City Spa & Residences’, following the project’s start.

According to figures released by JCC Payment Systems Ltd (JCC), Greek Cypriots spent €10.5 million in the north during 2016, of which nearly one million was splashed out in December alone.

The appointment of a new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) was announced by Hellenic Bank recently. The lender’s new CFO will be Lars Kramer, who will be moving from the ING Group, after beginning his career at PwC in South Africa.

The number of unemployed persons registered at the District Labour Offices in December 2016 reached 41,852 persons declining by 6.1% compared with December 2015, the Cyprus Statistical Service said recently.

Consumer prices dropped an annual 0.3% in December 2016, mainly on cheaper industrial goods and services which offset price increases of energy products and agricultural goods, the statistical service said.

Bank of Cyprus, the island’s largest lender, has appointed Credit Suisse and HSBC as global coordinators and joint bookrunners for exploratory roadshows ahead of a subordinated tier 2 bond issue, Bloomberg reported recently.

The high ratio of corporate debt in Cyprus, accumulated before the culmination of the banking crisis, has a strong and negative effect on investment and thus on economic output and therefore its expedient reduction could help economic recovery, the International Monetary Fund said in a working paper.