. * State ownership risks leaving too many skeletons in the cupboard * BY FIONA MULLEN I hope that it is not already too late to say this, but shareholders of the Cyprus Popular Bank/Laiki, formerly Marfin Popular Bank, should be praying that the bank gets EU and IMF permission to split it into a
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. BY STAVROS A. ZENIOS Cyprus society lost four billion euros as a result of bank investments in Greek government bonds. This is a conservative estimate. Losses are expected to be much higher from defaults of private and corporate loans. Assuming that the 20% default rate estimated by BlackRock apply to Cypriot banks operating in
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The case for Cyprus DR. JIM LEONTIADES Cyprus International Institute of Management Too much borrowing. That is the common root of much of the current financial crisis. If growth is to be resumed in the Euro-zone, many citizens, businesses and governments will have to reduce the proportion of their borrowed funds, to deleverage. The McKinsey
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European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has added his voice to warnings that Greece could be forced to leave the euro if it did not stick to its agreements with other members of the currency bloc. "I have much respect for Greek democracy and of course the Greek parliament, but I also have to respect
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Asian shares slid on Friday, driving declines in other risk assets, as deepening euro zone political turmoil and weak economic data from China raised growth concerns, while a huge hedging loss from JPMorgan added to market jitters. European shares will likely open lower, with financial spreadbetters predicting that major European markets would open down as
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The second licensing round for the exploration of hydrocarbons is expected to get underway on Friday with the Trade Minister saying that “a very big number of companies” have shown interest to bid for the 12 plots in the Cyprus offshore Exclusive Economic Zone. Neoclis Sylikiotis said that official bids will be submitted as of
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Prices of residential apartments in Greece slumped by almost a tenth in the first quarter of 2012 and the volume of property transactions halved, the central bank said, illustrating the depth of an economic recession now in its fifth year. Higher property taxes to help plug the country's budget gap coupled with tight credit conditions
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The Bank of Cyprus Group, the premier Cypriot lender with extensive exposure to the troubled Greek market, announced “optimistic” results for the first quarter, with profits after tax rising 33% to 99 mln euros from the first quarter of 2011, and after writing off some 231 mln in Greek sovereign debt. This follows a massive
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Norway's $610 billion oil fund has cut its exposure to euro-denominated debt to below 39% of its overall bond holdings, the fund told Reuters on Thursday. The fund was commenting after a report in German newspaper Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung which said that the fund was cutting its sovereign debt holdings, quoting Yngve Slyngstad, the chief
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Greece's jobless rate hit a new record in February, underlining the hardship that drove voters to reject an international bailout and plunge the country deeper into crisis in Sunday's election. Greece's recession, one of the worst in postwar Europe, has put more than one in five people out of work. The election left pro- and
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