Tourism helps Cyprus\\\'s economic recession to slow down

NICOSIA, Sept. 4 (Xinhua): Increased tourism arrivals have helped the recession of the crisis-stricken economy of Cyprus to considerably slow down in the second quarter this year, according to statistics released Wednesday.

The Statistics Service of the eastern Mediterranean island reported a seasonably adjusted 0.3 per cent shrinkage of GDP in the April-June period from the first quarter.

The year-on-year second quarter contraction of the economy was 2.3 per cent compared with a 3.9 drop for the first quarter.

Strong performance by the tourist sector, which marked a 6 per cent increase in arrivals and 8.9 per cent increase of revenue on a year-on-year basis in the first half of the year despite initial concerns about the impact of the Ukrainian crisis, is expected to help keep the recession this year to a projected 4.2 per cent.

Contraction last year, when Cyprus was bailed out by a 10-billion-euro assistance package offered by the Eurogroup and the International Monetary Fund, was 5.4 per cent, well below an original projection of about 8.2 per cent decline.