Moscow may reduce Cyprus loan rate
Russia may reduce the interest rate and extend the maturity on the 2.5-billion-euro loan it offered Cyprus in 2011, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said as he urged Europe to lead a bailout of the island na-
Almost one in every two commercial properties in central Athens is empty, according to the Panhellenic Federation of Property Owners (POMIDA). POMIDA is asking for empty properties to be exempt from the new single property tax that the government is planning to impose in the second half of this year. tion. “We’re prepared to ease the terms, restructuring the debt and possibly also looking at the rate,” Siluanov told reporters yesterday on a flight to Sochi, the southern Russian city that hosts next year’s Winter Olympics. Russia, which counts Cyprus as its biggest source of foreign direct investment, is more focused on changes to the existing credit than considering a request for a new loan from the eastern Mediterranean country, Siluanov said. He reiterated Russia’s position that euro-area countries should lead the way on any potential bailout. “Our steps to meet them part way can’t solve the Cyprus problem without significant financial support from the European Union,” Siluanov said.
Confidence dips.
Global consumer confidence dipped at the end of last year, a survey showed yesterday, and more than 60 percent of respondents said the next 12 months would not be a good time to spend. Concerns about US budget talks, which have since eased, and worries about the eurozone crisis weighed on consumer sentiment in the final quarter of 2012, according to the survey by global information and insights company Nielsen. Sixty-three percent of respondents said it was not a good time to buy discretionary or non-discretionary things over the next 12 months, with spending restraint most notable among Europeans. Confidence was worst in eurozone countries grappling with debt problems, notably Greece, where consumer sentiment fell sharply in the fourth quarter from the previous three months.
Cypriot bank.
The Central Bank of Cyprus named Spyros Stavrinakis deputy governor as it braces for an increased workload under a planned bailout of the euro-area country’s lenders.