The amount of deposits in Cypriot banks fell in January by €557.9m to €48.6bn in a month while total loans rose for a third consecutive month by €53m to €51.1bn, the central bank said.

Two bids for the development of the port and marina in Larnaca from Israel and China are expected to be submitted by the end of April 2018, Transport Minister Marios Demetriades said recently.

CyprusProfile talks to Evgenios C. Evgeniou, CEO of PwC Cyprus, on key areas of opportunity or growth, and expectations for Cyprus in 2018

Melco Resorts & Entertainment, the company behind City of Dreams Mediterranean, the integrated casino resort which is set to open in 2021 in Limassol, announced recently some of its first 500 job opportunities.

The economic sentiment indicator dropped by 0.7 units in February 2018 to 119.1 mainly on a deterioration of business confidence in services, even as consumer confidence hit an all-time high, the University of Cyprus said.

The value of turnover in the retail trade rose in 2017 by 5.2%, exceeding the rate at which the economy expanded as almost half of the loans in the banking system remain unserviced, the statistical service said.

The state-run port of Larnaca is projected to earn revenues of at least €9.5m in 2018 due to increased cargo traffic related to hydrocarbons activities, MPs heard recently.

In November 2017, the Cyprus parliament voted an important amendment to the Cyprus VAT Legislation, which amends the main VAT Law N.95(I)/2000 concerning taxation of building land, in order to align it with the provisions of EU VAT Directive 2006/112/EC. The amendment has entered into force on 2 January 2018.

The central government’s funds deposited at the Central Bank of Cyprus rose in January 2018 to €891.3m from €427.3m in December 2017, the bank supervisor said.

Rent prices rose at an increasing rate in the third quarter of 2017, driven mainly by office space and residential properties, the Cyprus division of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said.