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.

The economic research centre of the University of Cyprus said the Cypriot economy would contract 0.9% this year, compared to a January 0.5% contraction forecast.

The Central Bank of Cyprus in its capacity as resolution authority, recently appointed Chris Pavlou administrator of the defunct Cyprus Popular Bank, also known as Laiki.

Cypriot businesses called on the government to look into the possibility of lodging a complaint against Greece if it did not withdraw a decision to impose a 26% punitive tax on imports from certain countries, including Cyprus.

Energy Minister Yiorgos Lakkotrypis and labour unions at the Electricity Authority of Cyprus agreed to call for a new tender for a study on the state-owned power producer’s privatisation under new terms in the next 15 days.

The decision to lift capital restrictions showed that the banking system is stabilising, the banks’ association said recently, as the island put an end to a state of affairs introduced two years ago.

Cyprus will participate, for the third consecutive year, in the NASA Space Apps Challenge 2015, which brings together people of diverse scientific backgrounds, in order to address engineering issues through specific challenges.