Oil and gas companies have expressed great interest to take part in a third licensing round to obtain rights for hydrocarbons exploration in Cyprus` Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), Minister of Energy, Commerce, Industry and Tourism Yiorgos Lakkotrypis has said. Lakkotrypis said the interest expressed had been “great”, but refrained from naming specific operators. He added...Read More

Ι. Introduction According to the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) (par. 3.6), Cyprus had an obligation to initiate a privatisation plan to help improve the economic efficiency of State-Owned Organizations (SOEs) through enhanced competition and encouragement of capital inflows, and to help restore debt sustainability. The Action Plan will include assetspecific timelines and concrete intermediate steps....Read More

Cyprus and Iran signed on Tuesday 4 August an agreement on the avoidance of double taxation, paving the way for the expansion of business and investment opportunities between the two countries, three weeks after world powers reached a deal on Iran`s nuclear activity to gradually lift international sanctions. The Agreement on the Avoidance of Double...Read More

As of Monday 6 April, Cyprus is lifting all capital restrictions that were imposed on the island two years ago. “The full lifting of capital controls marks the full restoration of confidence in our banking system and the stabilisation of the economy,” President Nicos Anastasiades said, announcing a series of measures that aimed to boost...Read More

Cyprus and Bahrain signed a number of agreements on 9 March, during an official visit to the Kingdom by Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades. These include an agreement on double taxation avoidance, which is based on the OECD Model Convention for the Avoidance of Double Taxation on Income and on Capital.Read More

Central Bank of Cyprus Governor Chrystalla Georghadji has expressed optimism that 2015 will signal the start for economic recovery and a return to growth. She was addressing, on Monday 1 December, the Parliamentary Committee on Budgetary and Financial Affairs in the context of the 2015 state budget. Georghadji told MPs that her optimism is based...Read More

The Cyprus general government accounts achieved a surplus of €274.9 million for the period of January – October 2014. According to figures released by the Ministry of Finance on Monday 1 December, the overall surplus reached 1.58% of GDP compared with a deficit of 2.62% or €474.8 million in the corresponding period of 2013. The...Read More

Cyprus and the USA signed on Tuesday 2 December an intergovernmental agreement for the implementation of the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), in what has been described as a step further in boosting their economic and political ties. The agreement was signed by Minister of Finance Harris Georgiades and US Ambassador to Cyprus...Read More

Cyprus looks ready to strike a lucrative energy deal with neighbouring Egypt to pump natural gas straight to the LNG plant at Damietta, close to Cairo. According to media reports, Nicosia and Cairo appear to be thrashing out a deal which would see natural gas flowing to Egypt through pipelines from the island’s Aphrodite Gas...Read More

Cyprus has signed a multilateral agreement on the reciprocal exchange of information relating to financial accounts for tax purposes. According to an official announcement, the agreement was reached during a meeting in Berlin of the Global Forum of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes....Read More