The month in Cyprus, 13 June 2024
Collated news links of interest to ‘outsiders looking in’
Photo source: PIO.
Welcome to the Month in Cyprus, a selection of links to articles of relevance to ‘outsiders’ looking in: investors or those with interest in international relations. Topics marked with * will be, or already have been, analyzed in our monthly issues of Sapienta Country Analysis Cyprus. The Week in the Cyprus Region is part of the Sapienta Cyprus Snippets series. Learn more about the different subsections here.
*Political parties: Response to European Parliament elections. Who is the young social media star who shot to third place in the European Parliament elections? In-Cyprus published a good background on the new independent Member of the European Parliament here. Source: in-cyprus. What will be the response of the established political parties to the “Fidias phenomenon?” I outline three scenarios in the Sapienta Cyprus Insights special report here (paywall).
*Bank concentration: Eurobank-Hellenic. Eurobank Greece completed its purchase of Hellenic Bank on 10 June. (Source: Kathimerini). As I shall be demonstrating in the next Sapienta Country Analysis Cyprus report, it gives Hellenic a more balanced loan household-corporate portfolio. At the same time, it means that two banks in Cyprus will account for more than three-quarters of all lending.
*Inflation returns. In the monthly Sapienta Country Analysis Cyprus reports we have been forecasting a return of inflation in Cyprus for a while now. Sure enough, the inflation rate according to the national consumer price index rose from 1.2% in March to 2.4% in June and 2.7% in May. The EU-harmonized inflation rate will be out next week and can be expected to show a similar trend. We’ll be analyzing why in the end-June Sapienta Country Analysis Cyprus report. (Source: Cystat).
* Energy: US interest in the electricity interconnector. The US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) has expressed its interest in the Great Sea Interconnector (formerly EuroAsia Interconnector)—the submarine electricity cable that will link Crete in Greece, Cyprus and Israel. (Source: Kathimerini.) It remains to be seen whether US money will prevail over those in Cyprus who oppose the cable in Cyprus for various reasons.
Asylum-seekers. With the number of irregular arrivals in Cyprus a political hot potato, the Cyprus government has declined to admit 31 people stuck in the UN-monitored buffer zone in scorching temperatures that have already hit July-August norms. Two unaccompanied minors have now gone missing. Source: in-cyprus.
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