George Karatzias was appointed chairman of the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) on Thursday, returning to the regulator just over two years after leaving to become an executive director at the Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC).

The Cabinet approved Karatzias’ appointment for a five-year term, alongside the appointment of Loukas Lagoudis as CySEC vice-chairman and Andrea Moundi Savvides as a board member.

Panikkos Vakkou was also appointed as an executive director on the CBC board, completing a reshuffle that will see the two financial institutions exchange senior officials.

The CBC congratulated Karatzias on his appointment as chairman of CySEC and thanked him for his contribution during his time at the central bank.

“At the same time, the CBC welcomes Panikkos Vakkou, who is assuming duties as an executive director at the CBC,” the central bank said in a statement on Thursday.

Cyprus’ cabinet on Thursday approved five tourism incentive schemes covering Kato Pyrgos, conferences, foreign sports teams, rural experiences and Christmas villages, seeking to attract visitors beyond the island’s established resorts and busy summer months.

Tourism Deputy Minister Kostas Koumis announced the measures following the cabinet meeting, explaining that they aim to develop specialist tourism, enrich the services available to visitors and increase tourism flows towards less popular areas.

The largest targeted investment is a €1.5 million grant scheme for hotels, tourist accommodation and leisure centres operating in Kato Pyrgos Tyllirias.

Under the programme, which will run from 2026 to 2028, businesses will be able to receive funding covering 85 per cent of eligible expenditure on improvement projects.

Koumis described the scheme as a “targeted intervention” for an area which, despite its natural and cultural strengths, continues to face development difficulties.

Cyprus’ business competitiveness increasingly depends on the green and digital transition, Commerce Minister Michael Damianos said on Thursday, noting that more than €500 million had been secured for related measures during the 2021-2027 programming period.

Speaking at the first Cyprus IT Directors Forum, held as part of the third Cyprus Tech Summit, Damianos said the funding was being directed towards entrepreneurship, industrial development, energy upgrading, the circular economy and the digital upgrading and transformation of businesses.

“Through the policies and grant schemes of the ministry, businesses are supported in modernising their infrastructure and processes and strengthening their productivity and outward orientation,” Damianos said.

He added that the ministry was also working to create a business environment that encouraged innovation, attracted investment and facilitated the transition towards more modern and sustainable business models.

Damianos identified artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and human resources as three of the main challenges currently facing businesses.

Productivity growth in Cyprus remained concentrated in a small number of sectors over the past three decades, with information and communications technology (ICT) recording by far the strongest gains, according to a report from the Economics Research Centre of the University of Cyprus (CypERC).

The report, which examined labour productivity and labour compensation across ten major sectors between 1996 and 2025, found that labour productivity increased by an average 1.44 per cent a year across the economy.

However, the overall figure concealed substantial differences between sectors, with several traditional industries recording long-term declines in productivity.

Information and communication was the strongest performer, with average annual labour productivity growth of 5.27 per cent, followed by financial and insurance activities at 2.33 per cent and wholesale and retail trade at 1.61 per cent.

By contrast, labour productivity declined by an average 0.90 per cent a year in agriculture, forestry and fishing, by 0.84 per cent in real estate activities and by 0.82 per cent in arts and other services.

Borrowers with floating-rate loans will see their repayments rise following the European Central Bank’s (ECB) latest interest rate increase, although the impact will not be immediate, the Association of Cyprus Banks (ACB) said on Thursday.

The ECB raised its three key interest rates by 25 basis points, or 0.25 percentage points, earlier on Thursday as it sought to contain inflation and maintain price stability in the euro area.

The ACB said the timing and extent of any increase in a borrower’s monthly repayment would depend on the terms of the individual loan agreement and the type of reference rate involved.

A repayment would generally be adjusted at the next scheduled interest rate review date, rather than immediately after the ECB decision.

Depending on the reference rate, this could coincide with the period when the new ECB rates took effect or occur every three, six or 12 months, with Euribor and banks’ base rates among the relevant benchmarks.

The ACB said borrowers could determine which loans were affected and by how much by examining their loan agreements.

Passenger traffic through Larnaca and Paphos airports was 7.9 per cent higher in the first eight months of 2026 than in the same period of 2024, despite a sharp spring disruption linked to regional instability, but remained 3.3 per cent below the exceptional levels recorded in 2025, Hermes Airports figures show.

The two airports handled 8.82 million passengers between January and August 2026, compared with 9.13 million in the corresponding period of 2025 and 8.18 million in 2024.

The figures provide a mixed picture for Cyprus’ aviation and tourism sectors as the island continues to absorb the effects of the Iran war and wider instability in the Middle East.

They show that passenger traffic has not fallen back to 2024 levels, despite the disruption experienced during the spring, while the gap with the record-breaking 2025 season has narrowed considerably during the summer.

Cyprus still has plenty going for it in investors’ eyes, but expensive energy, slow paperwork and limited international connections are taking some of the shine off the island’s business appeal.

The EY Attractiveness Survey found that 83 per cent of investors consider Cyprus an attractive destination for foreign direct investment, while 62 per cent plan to expand their operations on the island over the next year.

The findings were presented this week at EY’s Cyprus Future Realised forum, where attention turned not only to what Cyprus is getting right, but also to the familiar problems it has yet to solve.

They came on the same day President Nikos Christodoulides announced that substantive foreign investment in Cyprus rose by around 10 per cent in 2025.

Presenting the survey, EY Cyprus representative Andreas Anastasiou said the tax system remained Cyprus’ strongest card, receiving a positive assessment from 90 per cent of respondents.

The Limassol Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Evel), in co-operation with the Italian Embassy in Cyprus, will hold a major business forum on shipping and Cyprus-Italy economic relations on October 9, 2026, following a successful bilateral business roundtable earlier this year.

The event, which will take place at 10am at the DP World Terminal in Limassol, will bring together representatives of the Italian and Cypriot governments and businesses from the shipping and wider business sectors, under the auspices of the Deputy Ministry of Shipping.

Speaking to Entrepreneurial Limassol, Evel’s own periodical, chamber president Andreas Tsouloftas said that preparations were already under way for what he described as a major business event, with shipping expected to be a central focus alongside broader business issues.

The forum will be followed by a networking lunch and B2G and B2B meetings, giving government and business representatives from the two countries an opportunity to establish direct contacts and explore potential areas of co-operation.

Europe is facing an “existential” question over its place in a world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence, economic protectionism and the growing power of China and India, former Portuguese minister Bruno Macaes warned.

Addressing the EY Cyprus Future Realised Forum 2026, the former secretary of state for European affairs described the international order as no longer simply multipolar, but “metamorphic”, changing constantly as technology, trade and geopolitics rewrite the rules.

At the heart of that shift, according to Macaes, is a sweeping redistribution of global economic power.

He pointed to China’s emergence as a serious rival to the US, alongside India’s sharp rise in income per head compared with the global average.

Cyprus’ state-owned asset management company Kedipes expects its repayments to the government to exceed €2 billion during the final quarter of 2026, as it moves away from loan portfolio sales and places greater emphasis on recoveries and early loan repayments.

Kedipes chairman Lambros Papadopoulos said a further €120m in cash would be returned to the state before the end of the year.

Total state aid repayments had reached €1.93bn by September 4, he added. This included €1.76bn in cash, the transfer of 247 properties worth €48m, expenditure of €110m under the mortgage-to-rent scheme and a further €13m through Estia and other arrangements.

During the first half of 2026, Kedipes generated regular cash inflows of €162.9m, up 0.9 per cent from €161.5m a year earlier, despite the continued reduction of its portfolio.

Cyprus and Bahrain are seeking to deepen business and maritime cooperation, with Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Keve) president Stavros Stavrou saying Cyprus could serve as a gateway for Gulf companies seeking to expand into Europe.

Speaking during an interview with the News of Bahrain’s Ashen Tharaka, Stavrou said that the recent visit to Manama had built on January’s high-level contacts and aimed to turn renewed political momentum into practical business cooperation.

“This meeting was a follow-up to the one our president had in January, when we accompanied him with a delegation from the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry,” Stavrou stated.

The Keve president mentioned that he had held a “very open and productive discussion” with the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry on how to take relations between businesses and entrepreneurs in Bahrain and Cyprus “to the next level”.

Safe Bulkers has raised €80.4 million from its private placement, giving the Cyprus-linked dry-bulk shipowner additional room to fund its sizeable newbuilding programme while keeping the option of further vessel purchases firmly on the table. 

The company completed the accelerated bookbuilding process on Wednesday, placing 12m new common shares with selected investors at €6.70 each. The figure represents gross proceeds, with the net amount to be available after transaction costs. 

The deal follows the fundraising plan announced earlier on Wednesday, when Safe Bulkers said it intended to use the proceeds to strengthen liquidity, finance its existing newbuilding programme and potentially support further newbuild orders or second-hand vessel purchases. 

Chief executive and largest shareholder Polys Hajioannou also took part in the placement, although his final allocation was smaller than initially planned.

Cyprus recorded a 3.5 per cent year-on-year increase in agricultural output prices in the second quarter of 2026, making it the third-highest increase in the European Union, according to Eurostat data published on Thursday.

The increase in Cyprus followed a broader decline across the EU, where the average price of agricultural output fell by 5.8 per cent compared with the second quarter of 2025.

It was the third consecutive quarter of decline in EU agricultural output prices, according to Eurostat.

Only Croatia and Malta recorded stronger increases than Cyprus, with agricultural output prices rising by 3.9 per cent in both countries.

The figures placed Cyprus among just seven EU countries where agricultural output prices increased on an annual basis during the quarter.

The board of directors of Mitsides Public Company Ltd will convene on September 28, 2026, to review and consider the approval of the interim consolidated financial statements for the period ended June 30, 2026.

The executive session is scheduled to take place at the corporate headquarters of the company located in the Dhali Industrial Zone.

During the upcoming assembly, members of the board are expected to examine the interim management statement covering the period from January 1, 2026, to June 30, 2026.

The upcoming scheduled review comes shortly after the company finalised a significant financial transaction for its shareholders during the summer month.

Young entrepreneurs and start-ups in Cyprus will have the chance to compete for €200,000 in cash prizes, with applications for the 2026 Stelios Awards open until October 31 ahead of the awards ceremony in Nicosia on November 10.

The Stelios Awards for Young Entrepreneurs in Cyprus return for another year, offering three prizes aimed at helping promising businesses grow, create jobs and take their next step.

This year, the winner will receive €100,000, while the second-placed entrepreneur will take home €60,000 and the third €40,000.

Applications opened on September 1 and will remain open for two months, closing on October 31.

The three winners will then be recognised at an awards ceremony on November 10 at the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation’s headquarters in Nicosia.