Loan restructuring in the state-owned cooperative credit sector reached €1.25 billion in 2016, marking an increase of 20% year on year, reducing the NPL ratio to a historic 47% of the Co-op’s total loan book, the CCB Chief Executive Officer Nicholas Hadjiyiannis has said.

The Harmonized Price Index (HICP) for December 2016 increased by 0.1% when compared to December 2015, while for the period between January and December 2016 the HICP recorded a decrease of 1.2% compared to the corresponding period of the previous year.

Bank of Cyprus said that it fully repaid its outstanding emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) to the Central Bank, prior to commencing trading at the London Stock Exchange.

Hermes Airports, which operates Cyprus’ international airports in Larnaca and Paphos, said that it served 8,974,163 passengers in 2016, 18% more than in 2015 and expects the trend to continue in 2017.

The general government in generated in January to November 2016 a budget surplus of €65.5m on a cash basis which was almost six times higher than that of 2015, the Finance Ministry said.

The House Finance Committee recently began discussing a bill allowing banks to rent as well as perform maintenance on repossessed properties on their books to make them more marketable.

The government will try hard to get a deal for selling gas from Cyprus’ Aphrodite field to Egypt in 2017 but finds the prospect somewhat distant because oil prices are expected to remain high for the foreseeable future.

The Sotira Municipality presented its key to the city to the Chinese investors who will be building the village’s first private tourism investment ‘Sun City Spa & Residences’, following the project’s start.

According to figures released by JCC Payment Systems Ltd (JCC), Greek Cypriots spent €10.5 million in the north during 2016, of which nearly one million was splashed out in December alone.

The appointment of a new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) was announced by Hellenic Bank recently. The lender’s new CFO will be Lars Kramer, who will be moving from the ING Group, after beginning his career at PwC in South Africa.