The year 2015 has been positive for Cypriot tourism, Energy and Tourism Minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis said during a recent news conference at the World Travel Market in London.

Cypriot lenders will not be included in an EU-wide exercise early in 2016 testing banks’ financial resilience.

Bank of Cyprus has received Best Private Bank award 2015 from the Global Finance international magazine.

Cyprus unemployment rate fell slightly this September to 15.1% compared with last September when it reached 16.3%, according to data released by Eurostat.

Cyprus and Egypt signed a Memorandum of Military and Defence Cooperation recently, further enhancing their relations.

Setting up a bad bank with government money to tackle the high stock of non-performing loans in Cyprus would require a second bailout, an official familiar with the economic developments has said.

Irena Georgiadou, Hellenic Bank’s chairwoman, said that a “regulatory hysteria” is detrimental for growth and banks need to operate in an environment which provides “the right balance” of regulation and growth.

Texas-based Noble Energy believes the Egyptian gas market is still open to other players despite the recent discovery of the massive Zohr prospect within Egyptian waters.

Property transactions in Cyprus rose an annual 23% to 403 in October, three months after the parliament passed a tax breaks package aiming at boosting activity in the real estate sector, after a 10% slump in August and a stabilisation in September, the department of land and surveys said.

French energy giant Total is rushing to meet a deadline in a last ditch effort to discover oil and gas deposits in Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone southern part which borders Egypt’s rich ‘Zohr’ plot.