Cyprus Updates

Study shows that life in Berlin is cheaper than Cyprus

admin — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 06:50:22 +0000

According to an article in today’s issue of Phileleftheros newspaper, a German study shows that there is a significant difference in the prices of necessities and services between Cyprus and Berlin. Even though according to the article the aim of the study was to reinforce the German propaganda for money laundering in Cyprus, and the fact that some of the prices quoted for Cyprus are wrong, the results are still interesting.

The average salary in Berlin is €2079 while in Cyprus is €1300.
The largest differences where found in the retail, entertainment and utility sectors.
A meal in a cheap restaurant in Berlin costs €6 while in Nicosia €12 (a 100% difference). The difference falls down to 25% when taking into consideration the most expensive restaurants in each area.
1 liter of fresh milk in Berlin costs €0.60 while in Cyprus the price is fixed at €1.41.
The study showed that the price of 500g of white bread costs €1.00 in Berlin and €2.00 in Nicosia, while the latter not true, it still costs more than €1.00 in Cyprus with the average price of bread in bakeries at around €1.50.
Prices of utilities, electricity, water and garbage collection cost 30% more in Nicosia than in Berlin.
Average prices of clothing items in Nicosia are 50% more expensive than Berlin.
Average monthly rent for a 85m² apartment in Cyprus is about €196 while in Germany €150. This of course changes for town centers with two bedroom flats in Nicosia and Berlin being at around the same price of €450 per month.
The only thing that is cheaper in Cyprus according to the study is public transport with buses and taxis being 60% cheaper.

Old couple beaten up in their home

George Xatzis — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 06:57:03 +0000

A 90 year old man and his 82 year old wife opened their door yesterday morning at 8:15 at their house in Nicosia to find a 35 year old man, 1.75m tall well build with black hair, and a blond woman the same age. They hit the couple in various body parts and then tied the 90 year old man’s legs with plastic rope and demanded that he gives them money. They then fled the scene without even taking the €1000 the man gave them. The police arrived and called for an ambulance to transport them to the hospital’s emergency department where they were provided for and released. The local police is investigating the matter.

Unpaid electricity bills

George Xatzis — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 14:35:23 +0000

EAC general manager Mr Stelios Stylianou spoke on a local radio station yesterday. He noted that due to the banking system pause the past couple of weeks almost no one payed their electricity bills despite the fact that the registers were open. He urged all the EAC customers to settle their outstanding balances on time because the authority is expecting a fuel shipment soon and if they don’t receive the bill payments on time they will be forced to seize payments.

Turkish Flag in Eleftherias square

George Xatzis — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 14:21:49 +0000

A french man raised a turkish flag outside a Laiki bank (now Bank of Cyprus) branch at “Eleftherias square” in Nicosia today. The locals managed to disable him in their frustration and hand him over to the police. The authorities are investigating the matter where as the offender is claiming that he was protesting against the economic crisis. He was arrested for a flagrant offense.

Salary cuts for ministers

George Xatzis — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 14:13:12 +0000

The Ministry council decided today to release the University, Local Authority (municipality) and Government deposits from the haircut! They also decided to decrease the ministers salaries by 20% including the 13th salary. The president Mr Nicos Anastasiades also authorized the government accountant to decrease his salary by 25%.

Haircut on University research funds and public projects

George Xatzis — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 14:08:18 +0000

The University of Cyprus has all its research funds, gifts, donations and scholarship funds deposited in Laiki and Cyprus banks (which are now merged to Bank of Cyprus). Information today says that the haircut will not be imposed on these funds and also to any government help funds to local authorities such as municipalities.

Christopher Pissarides remarks on the Cyprus bailout

George Xatzis — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 10:09:03 +0000

Nobel prize winner and member of the Cyprus Economic Council, Christopher Pissarides writes his remarks about the Cyprus bailout in an article in the Financial Times

He explains that Cyprus does not have the same problems as Greece despite their affinity which was recently emphasized to him by the celebrations of the presidential election.

Cyprus’s problem is much more manageable and the 8 times larger deposits compared with the GDP is still smaller than the one in Luxemberg and similar to Maltanad Ireland. Troikas approach to haircut all deposits including 100000 euros to shrink the large banking sector so quickly was an aftermath of the Greek bond haircut. The initial intent before the Greek haircut was to shrink the banking sector by 50% in a period of five years.

The rapid decision to impose a haircut (or levy) on all deposits with the threat of turning of the ELA (Emergency liquidity assistant) is what troubles Mr Pissarides.

He accuses the Euro-zone leaders of insulting the vision of the founders of the monetary union and acting in a way that is very confusing to everyone.

Second memorandum or not?

George Xatzis — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 14:16:43 +0000

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

5.75% cheaper electricity

George Xatzis — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 13:58:44 +0000

Following the statements of the Minister of commerce earlier this morning he announced that from 1st April 2013 electricity rates will decrease by 5.75%.

Exiting the meeting he had today with the president and other authorities, Mr George Lakkotripis said that they are planning to reduce the cost by another 3%.

He emphasized the difficulties since the bottleneck for the high electricity rates in Cyprus is the price of petrol used as a raw material to produce power.

Funny images inspired from the Cyprus bailout

George Xatzis — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 13:42:25 +0000

The following images do not intent to portray any form of political belief or propaganda. They are just a humoristic approach to the resent events that put a cloud over the Cypriot people heads