Consumer price inflation climbed again in May, with prices rising by 3.9% compared with the same period of the previous year. This is the fourth straight month of increase, and could mean that Cyprus inflation will hit 4% in June. Inflation has been climbing mainly as a result of high international oil prices, which affect
More
Fitch has placed Bank of Cyprus on negative watch and downgraded Marfin Popular Bank's Long-term Issuer Default Rating to BBB- from BBB – placing its individual rating on negative watch. The rating agency has also downgraded Marfin Popular’s covered bonds to BBB from BBB+ and maintained them on Rating Watch Negative (RWN). Fitch said the
More
For his doctors, Timothy Ray Brown was a shot in the dark. An HIV-positive American who was cured by a unique type of bone marrow transplant, the man known as "the Berlin patient" has become an icon of what scientists hope could be the next phase of the AIDS pandemic: its end. Dramatic scientific advances
More
Greece has agreed to sell a 10% stake in OTE Telecom to Deutsche Telekom, exercising a put option, and has begun talks on selling a further 6% to the German firm, Greek newspapers said on Thursday. The sale will fetch 410.7 mln euros ($589 mln) to help pay down public debt. Deutsche Telekom already owns
More
Flamboyant pop star Lady Gaga has scored her first No. 1 album in the United States after a 99-cent promotion by Amazon.com sent the much-hyped release past the rare million-copy mark in its debut week. According to sales data published on Tuesday by Billboard magazine, "Born This Way" sold 1.11 million copies during the week
More
Suspected Chinese hackers tried to steal the passwords of hundreds of Google email account holders, including those of senior U.S. government officials, Chinese activists and journalists, the Internet company said. The perpetrators appeared to originate from Jinan, the capital of China's eastern Shandong province, Google said. Jinan is home to one of six technical reconnaissance
More
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan offered to resign once he had dealt with the worst of the country's nuclear crisis and tsunami disaster, cutting a deal with party rebels to avert defeat in a parliamentary no-confidence vote on Thursday. Kan's offer to step down, probably in the autumn, was made just hours before the vote
More
A European Central Bank policymaker said a voluntary deal for investors to keep renewing their Greek debt holdings might be acceptable, raising hopes on Wednesday for an aid agreement to prevent a default by Greece. But Moody's Investors Service slashed Greece's credit rating by three notches to deep into junk territory, citing a growing risk
More
Data just released for the hotels and restaurants sector in 2009 underline how the global financial crisis took its toll on the sector in Cyprus. Value added fell in real (constant-price) terms by 7.3% in 2009, having already dropped by 3.4% in 2008. At current market prices, value added in 2009 decreased by 6.2% to
More
ICT Group, the vehicle of Russian investor Alexander Nesis, said on Wednesday that it had bought a minority stake in Piraeus Bank , whose share price has been hit hard by Greece's financial crisis. ICT Group has acquired a stake of just under 5% in Piraeus Bank on the stock market and via a recent
More