Cyprus

A total of 9.2 million passengers traveled through Cyprus airports in 2022, according to the senior director of aviation development, marketing and communication for Hermes Airports.

"The year 2022 ended with 9.2 million arriving and departing passengers, a figure that corresponds to approximately 82% of 2019 passenger traffic," said Maria Kouroupi.

Fourteen candidates formally joined the race on Thursday to become Cyprus's next president in an election next month dominated by the island's decades-old division, irregular migration and corruption scandals.

Cyprus has a presidential system of government and the head of state has wide executive powers.

Total new loans in Cyprus increased by 172.8 million euros in November compared to the previous month, despite an increase in interest rates across all loan categories.

The number of Russian nationals who flew to the Turkish-occupied north of Cyprus went up sixfold last year, when calls for direct flights in the unrecognized part of the divided island gained traction after an EU flight ban in the south.

An all-sides meeting is planned for January 13, in order to readdress demands from the workers at the Electricity Authority of Cyprus and find solutions to avert the strike measures announced last month, according to Labor Minister Kyriacos Koushos. 

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his wife Mareva Grabowski-Mitsotaki hosted a lunch for outgoing Cyprus Republic President Nicos Anastasiades and his wife Andri on Tuesday.

Mitsotakis thanked Anastasiades for the long and close cooperation both at bilateral and EU level, government sources said.

Chief of the National Guard Lieutenant General Demokritos Zervakis has expressed satisfaction with the signing of the first Bilateral Defense Cooperation Program between Cyprus and the United States.

"Delighted for the signing of our first ever Cyprus-USA Bilateral Defence Cooperation Program," Lieutenant General Zervakis wrote on his Twitter account.

Cyprus' national minimum wage went into effect on January 1, according to a decree issued by the Minister of Labor and Social Insurance, Kyriacos Koushos. The national minimum wage is set at 940 euros, though, for the first six months of employment, it will come to €885.

A businesswoman from southeast Türkiye, who won a 4.5 million Turkish Liras ($240,820) jackpot in Turkish Cyprus in 2016 but was not paid due to "technical malfunction in the machine," has won a six-year legal battle when the court ruled that the prize be paid with statutory interest.

The budget of the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Cyprus for the year 2023 amounts to €523 million