Energy, Commerce, Industry and Tourism Minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis recently held meetings in Berlin with representatives of major air carriers and tour operators of Germany, on the sidelines of the international tourist fair ITB Berlin 2015.

Unemployment in Cyprus dropped 5.6% in February 2015 according to the Statistical Service.

Hellenic Bank aims to build up its market share through organic growth, and not necessarily through buyouts of Greek or other smaller lenders, its chief executive told an extraordinary meeting of shareholders, prior to a recent media briefing.

The government generated a €74.5m primary surplus in January 2015 on a cash basis, which accounts for 0.4% of the economy and is almost half of the primary surplus generated a year before, the finance ministry said.

Promoting the island’s tourist product must be intensified and the tourism organisation (CTO) must be given more advertising money, CTO vice chairman Costas Koumis said recently.

The European Central Bank governing council is meeting in Nicosia on Thursday 5 March and is set to reveal details of plans to buy €1.1 trillion worth of eurozone assets as part of its landmark quantitative easing programme.

Cyprus is on track to exit the adjustment programme before the original deadline of 2016, European Central Bank (ECB) president Mario Draghi said recently from Nicosia.

CEOs in Cyprus are clearly more confident in 2015 about their companies’ revenue growth prospects.

Finance Minister Harris Georgiades said he would welcome a decision by euro area finance ministers to divert funds earmarked to recapitalise banks to the refinancing of existing debt.

The yield on the Cyprus government 10-year bond, maturing in 2020, dropped below 5% to 4.96%, but still above the four-year low of 4.50% recorded in September 2014.