Cyprus’ current account deficit shrank last year to €514m, which is the lowest since 2008, or 2.9% of economic output, down from a deficit of €760.6m or 4.3% last year, the Central Bank of Cyprus said.

Cystat recently released its statistics regarding the latest figures in Imports, Sales and Stocks of Petroleum Products in October 2016.

Capital intelligence Ratings, the Limassol-based rating company, raised the financial strength rating and long-term foreign currency rating of Bank of Cyprus and Hellenic Bank a notch to B+.

Hellenic Bank was profitable for the third consecutive quarter during 2016, reporting a profit from continuing operations of €5m for the nine-month period ended 30 September 2016, compared to €1.9 million for the nine-months period of 2015.

The liquidity shortfall in the Cypriot banking system narrowed in October to €5.5bn, which is the lowest value since February 2013, the month before the bail-in, the Central Bank of Cyprus said.

In November 2016, the economic sentiment in Cyprus edged up as the Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI-CypERC) increased by 0.3 points compared to October because of improvements in retail trade, industry and consumer confidence.

Cyprus will host two very important tourism conferences which are set to attract over 1,000 participants from the UK.

The largest marina in Cyprus, hosting up to 1,000 boats, is envisioned in the terms of a tenders process for the development of the Larnaca port and marina, opened earlier this week.

Cypriot airliner Cobalt is set to spread its wings to Russia and the Middle East after recently obtaining additional flight permits.

Both the government and petrol companies are committed to move the liquid fuel installations in Larnaca to the new Vasiliko installations by the end of 2017.