— “Civil servants’ bullying pays off – no wage cuts” — The Cyprus government said it plans to tax bank deposits, create a bank stability fund and pursue pension reform in its bloated public sector to help beat down a deficit running above euro zone limits. But the pro-labour communist administration stopped short of announcing
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Entrenched property disputes on ethnically split Cyprus could be resolved if the two sides compromised on new proposals in reunification talks, a report by the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank said on Thursday. Peace talks, ongoing for more than two years, have stalled on how to satisfy the wishes of over 210,000 Cypriots who
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Four companies have so far purchased tender documentation for the upcoming sale of a majority stake in Serbia's state-run Telekom Srbija telephone company, the Finance Ministry said on Thursday. German Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, Telekom Austria and Mexican America Movil have already purchased the documentation, the statement said. Russia's Weather Investments which owns Egypt's Orascom,
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Jumbo SA, Greece's biggest toy seller, sees full-year net profit falling 24% as consumption shrinks in the austerity-hurt country, Chief Executive Tolis Vakakis said on Thursday. "We have provided a guidance of 60 mln euro net profit for this fiscal year. We are saying this is still within our budget," Vakakis told Reuters in an
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Cyprus gross domestic product grew 0.6% in the third quarter on a quarterly basis, compared with a revised 0.5% in the second quarter, the island's statistics department said on Thursday. Year on year, real GDP expanded by 1.8% from July until September compared with 0.5% in the second quarter. Most sectors of the economy showed
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In just about a month, more than 1,000 people have chosen to “Like” the Financial Mirror page on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Financial-Mirror/112107185515325#!/pages/Financial-Mirror/112107185515325 . We will continue to provide a selection of interesting stories, beyond the business and economy news about Cyprus, Greece, Turkey, Russia and the European Union that appear on our website. So, we need your
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Another 17 U.S. billionaires, including Facebook co-founders Mark Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskovitz, have pledged to give away at least half their fortunes in a philanthropic campaign led by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. A total of 57 billionaires now have joined The Giving Pledge, which was launched by Microsoft founder Gates and investor Buffett in
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Greece's ruling Socialists are still more popular than the conservative opposition despite tough austerity measures but the gap is narrowing, a poll showed on Wednesday. The poll of voting intentions by MRB for Mega TV channel showed the Socialists leading with 26.7 percent if elections were held now, against 22.6 percent for the conservatives. The
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Financial markets nervous ahead of EU summit * Bickering among European Union leaders escalated on Wednesday over a proposal for joint euro zone bonds to overcome the bloc's debt crisis, with Germany saying it opposed the idea on legal and economic grounds. The chairman of finance ministers of the 16-nation single currency area, Jean-Claude Juncker,
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The euro zone needs coordinated action to resolve its debt crisis, EU Economics and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said on Thursday. "We have to take well-coordinated action to safeguard stability in the euro area. The current situation is not a crisis of the euro, Greece is not the only country facing major challenges," Rehn
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