Trade deficit up 4.7%
The trade deficit during the first ten months of the year increased by 4.7% year-on-year to CYP 1.79 bln as imports staged a rebound, while export growth remained the same, the Department of Statistics announced.
Total imports were up 8.7% to CYP 2.35 bln while exports, including reexports were up 23.2% at CYP 551.71 mln. During October, total imports were CYP 270.8 mln, of which CYP 184.8 mln were from other Member States of E.U. and CYP 86 mln imports from Third countries. Total exports were CYP 66.2 mln of which CYP 49 mln were dispatches to other Member States of E.U. and CYP 17.2 mln exports to Third Countries.
HICP up in November
The Statistical Service announced that the HICP recorded an increase of 2.0% in November compared to the corresponding index of November 2004, while a year earlier, the annual rate of change was 2.6%.
For the period January-November 2005 the HICP recorded an increase of 2.1% compared to the same period of 2004.
The 12-month average rate of change, December 2004-November 2005 compared to the index of December 2003-November 2004 was 2.2%.
Motor vehicle registrations dive in November
The number of motor vehicle registrations in November fell 15.1% year-on-year to 3850 as consumers vanished from showrooms, but was 9.5% better than the October sales, according to Department of Statistics data.
The total registrations of motor vehicles, decreased by 9.4% to 45.450 in the January – November period, from 50.186 in January – November 2004.
Private saloon cars dropped to 34,304 from 38,893 in January – November 2004, i.e. there was a decrease of 11.8%.
Real GDP growth of 3.8% in Q3
Latest quarterly figures for gross domestic product show that the real GDP growth rate recorded 3.8% in the third quarter of 2005, when compared with the corresponding period of the previous year.
Compared with the previous quarter, and on a seasonally adjusted basis, the growth rate was 0.9%. Growth still looks on course to reach between 3.5% to 4.0% for the full year.
Home prices drop 0,8%
Home selling prices in November dropped by 0.8% from October with the benchmark BuySell Home Price Index receding to 110.38 from 111.31 the previous month, bringing the average home price lower by about CYP 800 to CYP 85,998.
The November decrease has brought home prices to an accumulated 3.3% gain to date this year.
The BuySell Home Price Index was rebased in September, in order to keep it updated with respect to the most recent quality characteristics of the housing market in Cyprus in 2005, a company announcement said.
The Average Home Price is now based on the Constant-Quality Average (Hedonic) Price of the first quarter of 2005.
