Finance Μinister Harris Georgiades said Cyprus should remain on the course of economic reforms and fiscal prudence to help it regain its investment grade sovereign rating and reduce its borrowing costs.

Building permits fell almost 20% year-on-year in terms of construction area and 17% in terms of volume in the first two months of 2016, suggesting a possible slow down in construction activity, the statistical service said recently.

European digital or electronic signature is coming to Cyprus, as experts from Estonia are helping the government make decisions in setting up a digital platform that would enable different transactions between agencies, companies and individuals in fast and secure networks.

Initial financial reports for Q1 2016 at Bank of Cyprus are positive, showing a €1b decrease of non-performing loans (NPLs), along with a €50 million profit.

The European Commission (EC) expects growth to maintain momentum in Cyprus in the course of 2016 and 2017 at 1.6% and 2.0% respectively.

Local authorities in Cyprus are increasing their efforts for carbon emissions reduction and energy transition based on new European programmes, the results of which were presented and discussed among other topics in a three-day congress earlier in May in Nicosia.

The turnover of retail trade increased in the first two months of 2016, the Statistical Service announced recently.

Unemployment in Cyprus decreased to 12.1% in March 2016, the largest decrease in any EU member state on an annual basis (from 16.2%), according to Eurostat.

Revenues from the Cypriot ship management industry in the second half of 2015 amounted to €462 million, marking a marginal decline of €2 million or 0.43%, compared with €464 in the first half of the same year, according to the the latest Central Bank of Cyprus' ship-management survey.

In a recent article I questioned the suggestion that the cost of a united Cyprus property settlement would be €30 billion and promised to explain how I get it down to less than €5bn.