Cyprus tourism and business sectors hold up reasonably well despite overextended banks and hurting economy.

A permanent 8% reduction on the basic tariffs of electricity has been announced by the Cyprus Energy Regulator CERA.

Indian High Commissioner Ravi Bangar has expressed interest in the privatisations process at a meeting with the Minister of Communications.

Job prospects in the air transport industry are said to be positive, as according to experts, air traffic in Europe will increase by 5% in the next decade, a significant development for Cyprus.

Fitch Ratings has affirmed Bank of Cyprus (BoC) and Hellenic Bank (HB) Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at ‘Restricted Default’ but has also upgraded their viability ratings to ‘cc’ and ‘ccc’ respectively from ‘f’.

Cyprus could return to the markets earlier than originally thought, according to the Finance Minister who said it was a fully feasible objective given the way things were progressing.

The island's business giants are throwing their weight behind a Cyprus solution, highlighting the enormous benefits it would bring to the economy across multiple sectors.

The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission will introduce a new automated system of risk based supervision by end of 2014.

CEO of Bank of Cyprus, John Patrick Hourican, says the management of the island’s largest lender aims at ‘a strong albeit smaller and safer bank’.

GDP rose by 0.3% in the euro area (EA17) and by 0.4% in the EU28 during the fourth quarter of 2013, compared with the previous quarter, according to second estimates published by the EU statistical office Eurostat.