According to the report, total revenue for the first half of 2024 increased by €800.1m, marking a 14.5 per cent rise to €6.31 billion, up from €5.51 billion in the corresponding period last year.
Notably, taxes on production and imports climbed by €127.8m, or 6.3 per cent, reaching €2.14bn compared to €2.01bn in 2023. Within this category, net VAT revenue, after deductions, rose by €88.4m, or 6.6 per cent, totalling €1.42bn compared to €1.34bn in the previous year.
Income and wealth tax revenues saw an impressive increase of €224.9m, or 18.8 per cent, amounting to €1.42bn compared to €1.19bn in 2023.
Social contributions also experienced a robust growth of €286.0m, or 16.5 per cent, reaching €2.01bn compared to €1.73bn last year.
Speaking to CyBC in the wake of a marathon six-hour extraordinary meeting called by the energy committee on Tuesday, Antoniou said that the state was forging ahead and would not be swayed from its twin goals of promoting the energy plan for Cyprus and assigning responsibilities to those who bear blame for the Vasiliko fiasco.
Information which trickled out at the conclusion of Tuesday’s meeting, attended by all stakeholders, confirmed that the state would be inviting new tenders to complete the grounded project.
Energy Minister George Papanastasiou had requested late in the day for the second half of the meeting to be held behind closed doors, in light of “a negative development” [for the Republic] in the arbitration case filed by the Chinese-led consortium against the state, currently underway in London.
The new agreement significantly improves employment conditions for some 40,000 workers employed in the sector.
Immediately after the signing of the collective agreement, the general secretary of the Federation of Builders, Miners and Allied Trades, Stelios Tsiapoutis, said that this is only the beginning for the construction industry, adding that the main thing is the faithful implementation of what has been agreed.
Based on the plan, he said, with specific recommendations and measures, both the issue of wage discrepancy and undeclared and under-declared work will be controlled from September 2024 to September 2025.
However, on a year-on-year basis, inflation has increased from the 2.4 per cent rate recorded in July 2023.
Moreover, Eurostat’s report showed that inflation across the Eurozone rose to 2.6 per cent in July, up from 2.5 per cent in June 2024.
The report also highlighted that the services sector contributed significantly to the inflation trajectory in July, with inflation in this sector coming up at 4 per cent, down from 4.1 per cent in June.
Additionally, the category of food, alcoholic beverages, and tobacco saw a slight decrease to 2.3 per cent from 2.4 per cent.
Specifically, according to the CBC’s latest edition of its quarterly financial accounts, Cypriot households’ financial assets were reported at €56.3 billion by the end of March 2024.
Of these assets, 56 per cent were held in cash, deposits, and loans, 3 per cent in securities, 24 per cent in shares, and 17 per cent in other financial assets.
In addition, the CBC reported that household debt stood at €19.6 billion, with a debt-to-GDP ratio of 65 per cent, showing a slight decrease compared to the previous quarter, primarily due to GDP growth.
Additionally, it was noted that since December 2016, the household debt ratio has decreased significantly, falling by 51 per cent during this time.
The index, which stood at 122.4 points, with 2021 acting as the base year set at 100 points, saw a decline of 0.1 per cent from May 2024.
Over the period from January to June 2024, the index fell by 3.1 per cent compared to the corresponding period in 2023.
In June 2024, the electricity supply sector’s index remained stable at 146.0 points, while the water supply and materials recovery sector recorded a slight increase of 0.1 per cent to 110.5 points.
Conversely, both the manufacturing sector and the mining and quarrying sector experienced a decrease of 0.1 per cent, with the indices standing at 118.2 and 125.0 points, respectively.
The Doers Company, known for organising the technology and startup-focused Reflect Festival, is launching the Elevate Summit, which will take place on October 16-17 at Limassol’s Warehouse venue.
According to the announcement, the summit aims to bring together over 2,000 attendees from across the real estate and technology industries.
Stylianos Lambrou, the founder of The Doers Company, explained the idea behind the event. “Elevate aims to shake up traditional real estate events,” he said.
“We’ll combine the festival spirit we’re known for, the latest tech solutions, fresh perspectives, and a global outlook,” Lambrou added.
In its announcement, the company said that “we are proud to announce that our hit mobile battler, ‘Hero Wars: Alliance’ has also ranked fourth in the Worldwide Top Free RPG Games and sits in the Top 20 Grossing RPG Games Worldwide, according to AppMagic rankings”.
Moreover, the company acknowledged various industry peers and media outlets, including Mobidictum, PocketGamer.com, Game World Observer, GamesPress, and others for recognising these achievements.
Since its launch in 2017, ‘Hero Wars: Alliance’ has continued to captivate players, the company mentioned. The game recently celebrated a major milestone by hosting its first collaboration with Crystal Dynamics, integrating the iconic video game character Lara Croft from Tomb Raider in a limited-time event.
“This partnership aims to foster closer collaboration between the two chambers for the benefit of our members, leveraging the expertise and international connections of both organisations,” Keve said in a statement.
Keve also noted that the Hellenic-German Chamber, with a history spanning 100 years, offers a wide range of services and activities to support both domestic and international initiatives.
In addition, it operates through a global network of bilateral German chambers present in 93 countries, representing over 51,000 member companies worldwide.
According to Keve, services provided by the Hellenic-German Chamber include consultancy for market entry, training seminars on international trade practices, and networking services with investors and business partners.
According to the centre’s July 2024 issue, this optimistic outlook is attributed to resilient demand, a tight labour market, easing inflationary pressures, and the gradual reduction of interest rates resulting from the normalisation of monetary policy.
Moreover, CypERC forecasts that the real GDP growth rate will reach 3.0 per cent in 2024 and increase to 3.3 per cent in 2025.
These projections represent an upward revision of 0.4 percentage points for 2024 compared to the April issue, spurred by higher-than-expected GDP growth in the first quarter of 2024 and further improvements in labour market conditions during the second quarter.
It should be noted that the forecast for 2025 remains unchanged from the April report.
The Cyprus Stock Exchange (CSE) ended Wednesday, July 31 with profits.
The general Cyprus Stock Market Index was at 167.29 points at 12:47 during the day, reflecting an increase of 1.14 per cent over the previous day of trading.
The FTSE / CySE 20 Index was at 101.85 points, representing a rise of 1.15 per cent.
The total value of transactions came up to €433,294, until the aforementioned time during trading.
In terms of the sub-indexes, the main and investment firm indexes rose by 1.14 per cent and 1.6 per cent respectively. The alternative and hotel indexes remained unchanged.
The biggest investment interest was attracted by Hellenic Bank (+3.05 per cent), Demetra (+1.64 per cent), the Bank of Cyprus (+0.48 per cent), the Cyprus Trading Corporation (-4.4 per cent), and Louis PLC (-2.59 per cent).
