Cyprus legal and accounting services defy the recession

Turnover in the general services sector dropped by 3.4% in October – December 2009 compared with the same period of 2008 and by 4% for the whole of 2009 according to the Statistical Service, with hotels, travel agencies, architects and computer programmers bearing the brunt of the downturn.
However, legal and accounting services defied the recession with growth both in the fourth quarter and in 2009 as a whole.
The general turnover index does not refer to the whole services sector of Cyprus economy.
Decreases were recorded in the following sectors.
Accommodation Services (Hotels): down by 9.5% in the fourth quarter and 13.1% for the year.
Travel Agencies: down 9.6% in the fourth quarter and 16.8% for the year.
Architectural & Engineering Activities: down 9.8% in the fourth quarter and 4.9% for 2009.
Computer Programming and related activities: down 15.8% in Q4 and 10.3% for the year.
The broader sector of Accommodation and Food Service Activities (Hotels & Restaurants) recorded a decrease of 5.3% in the fourth quarter and 6.3% for the year.
Food and Beverage Service Activities were up by 2.6% in the fourth quarter but had fallen by 0.9% for the whole of 2009.
Telecommunications services were unchanged from the corresponding period of 2008 both in the fourth quarter and in 2009 as a whole.
Only one sector showed consistent growth, namely Legal & Accounting Activities. Turnover in this sector was up 4.3% in the fourth quarter and by 3.2% for the full year.
Cyprus has a 10% corporate tax rate and a raft of qualified lawyers and accountants who are paid considerably less than their counterparts in the UK.