The Governor of the Cyprus Central Bank Athanasios Orphanides has defended the Central Bank’s decision to increase the margin requirement on loans for property purchases in Cyprus, which aims to improve the risk profile of the bank loan portfolios as well as curtail the rapid growth in property loans and prices. During the last two

Broadband subscriptions exceed 50% of the total in 2006, according to the latest figures of the Statistical Service. Mobile subscriptions are more than 100%, reaching 1,115 per 1,000 inhabitants in 2006, compared to 1,021 in 2005 and 584 in 2002. The number of analogue telephone lines per 1,000 inhabitants decreased from 524 in 2005 to

…with downward risks increasing Based on an update for the seven largest Member States in the European Union, the Commission forecasts economic growth in 2007 at 2.8% in the EU and 2.5% in the euro area. This represents a downward revision of 0.1 percentage points (pp) compared with the spring forecast. European growth is expected

Cyprus Trading Corporation Plc released its 1H07 results with Net Profit before Minority Interest reaching CYP 2.57m (+24.1% YoY), 4.2% below Egnatia Financial Services estimate of CYP 1.30m. The negative contribution of higher Minority Interest and the loss arising from discontinued operations (disposal of CDL), decreased bottom line profitability by 36.7% YoY to CYP 1.20

Grapheast, a leading graphics solutions provider and software distributor, is set to launch the first Arabic-enabled version of the industry-leading database software, FileMaker Pro 8.5, at the GITEX 2007 show. The leading distributor expects to gain tremendous response for its latest offering as well as the array of cutting-edge solutions that will be showcased at

Thalys, the European high speed train operator, has selected a consortium to provide wireless broadband Internet access to passengers traveling in Comfort 1 and Comfort 2 between Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Cologne by 2008. It will be the first international high speed train to provide this service across European borders. Thalys announced that it has

Ericsson and Endemol International B.V. announced a global partnership agreement to develop interactive TV and user-generated content via Ericsson’s ‘Me-On-TV’ solution that was developed in partnership with Endemol, a global leader in TV and digital entertainment, and Dutch technology company Triple IT. ‘Me-On-TV’ is a network and device-independent technology, allowing consumers to upload, publish and

The outlook for the global reinsurance sector remains stable, supported by the generally robust balance sheets of reinsurers following strong profits in 2006 and the first half of 2007 and by enhanced risk management practices, Moody’s Investors Service said in a new Industry Outlook. Subject to the level of catastrophe activity, the number of rating

Capital Intelligence (CI), the international emerging markets rating agency, has raised Egypt’s long- and short-term foreign currency ratings by one notch to BBB-/A3 and  affirmed Egypt’s local currency ratings of BBB/A3. The change in the foreign currency rating reflects the substantial improvement in external solvency and liquidity ratios over the past few years, which indicate