Hellenic Bank foresees a positive macroeconomic outlook this year, a reduction in unemployment, and further improvement of key domestic indicators.

The Cyprus Central Bank announced the start of the first evaluation regarding the state of the country’s banks by the Troika following Cyprus’ exit from the bailout.

“Tourism is the steam-engine driving the Cyprus economy,” expressed Harris Loizides, president of the Cyprus HotelAssociation (CHA).

The government is planning to gradually reduce the levels of government spending and revenue as a percentage of gross domestic product over the next three-year period to levels last seen before the adoption of the euro from around 40% of the economy last year.

In July, the retail value and volume indices in Cyprus rose 1.7% and 0.1% respectively compared to July 20015, the statistical service said.

Bulgaria would hope to attract natural gas from Cyprus if its planned gas hub at the Black Sea, to transport gas from Russia and the Caspian Sea to southern and central Europe, goes ahead, it said recently.

Non-performing exposures in Cyprus fell by €687.6m in June 2016, to €24.7bn, compared to the month previous month, mainly on a drop in the delinquent loans of companies, the Central Bank of Cyprus said.

Only two contenders are left in the bid for a casino license in Cyprus, with several big names having quit the competition for various reasons.

The offer of passports, a recovering economy and a business community that is ready to sell at the right price are all combining to attract Chinese investors to Cyprus.

Finance Minister Harris Georgiades has voiced his disagreement over the creation of a state-owned asset management company (AMC), or bad bank, to handle distressed loans, as this would probably entail capital shortfalls for the banks due to EU state aid rules.