The better than expected fiscal developments in 2014 will allow the government to reduce its outstanding short term debt by €200m to €500m, the public debt management office said recently.

The construction sector saw its output drop almost 19% in the fourth quarter of 2014 compared to a year ago, accompanied by a marginal 0.1% increase in producer prices, the statistical service said.

Low-cost carrier Ryanair has announced its winter 2015 Paphos schedule with a seat sale.

In February 2015, compared with January 2015, industrial producer prices dropped -0.2% in Cyprus, rose by 0.5% in the euro area and by 0.6% in the EU282, according to estimates from Eurostat.

Deflation accelerated in March 2015, as measured by the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP), the Statistical Service of Cyprus said recently.

The Russian government could consider removing Greece, Hungary and Cyprus from its ban on most Western food imports, Russian Agriculture Minister Nikolai Fyodorov was quoted as saying.

RCB Bank, the lender mainly owned by Russia’s state-controlled VTB Bank and Otkritie Financial Corporation Bank, plans to expand its branch network in Cyprus, a RCB Bank director said recently.

The number of registered unemployed persons in Cyprus decreased in March 2015, new figures from the Statistical Service show.

Things were running smoothly in the Cypriot banking system on the first day after the lifting of the capital controls, Central Bank of Cyprus spokesperson Aliki Stylianou said.

The introduction of a carbon tax could help Cyprus reduce unemployment and offer its economy a boost, if labour tax was simultaneously reduced, academic economist Theodoros Zachariades said recently.