Cyprus ranks 37, out of 161, among the best countries to do business in 2019, according to a survey by Forbes Magazine.
High GDP growth, falling unemployment and the prospect of tapped energy sources are all in Cyprus’ favour, said Forbes.
But it ranks below Latvia, Poland, Chile and just above Slovakia and Mauritius – all these countries have a lower GDP per capita than Cyprus ($25,200).
The only Forbes category where Cyprus marked a substantial improvement was in property rights where it was still ranked 41 on a sliding scale of 1-100.
It also ranked a lowly 50 for red tape, 45 for innovation and 44 for tax burden while it came first for personal freedoms.
Rankings: Trade Freedom 21 Monetary Freedom 41 Property Rights 41 Innovation 45 Technology 33 Red Tape 50 Investor Protection 37 Corruption 40 Personal Freedom 1 Tax Burden 44.
“Despite downsizing and restructuring, the Cypriot financial sector remains burdened by the largest stock of non-performing loans in the euro zone, equal to nearly half of all loans,” said Forbes.
It said since the bailout, Cyprus has received positive appraisals by the Troika and outperformed fiscal targets but has struggled to overcome political opposition to bailout-mandated legislation, particularly regarding privatizations.
“The rate of non-performing loans (NPLs) is still very high at around 49%, and growth would accelerate if Cypriot banks could increase the pace of resolution of the NPLs,” said Forbes.
It noted that in October 2013, a US-Israeli consortium completed preliminary appraisals of hydrocarbon deposits in Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ), which estimated gross mean reserves of about 130 billion cubic meters.
“Though exploration continues in Cyprus’ EEZ, no additional commercially exploitable reserves have been identified.
Developing offshore hydrocarbon resources remains a critical component of the government’s economic recovery efforts, but development has been delayed because of regional developments and disagreements about exploitation methods.”
In the Forbes list, despite Brexit, the UK came top followed by Sweden, Hong Kong and New Zealand
https://www.forbes.com/places/cyprus/
