Speaking at a meeting with the deputy ministry, the hoteliers’ association Pasyxe and tourism bodies in Limassol, Tourism Minister Kostas Koumis said the year is now expected to close with a decline of around 5%, despite what he described as a successful response to earlier disruptions.

Summer Losses Narrow As Recovery Takes Shape

The decline eased to around 1% in June and just over 1% in July, while August data have not yet been released. The first seven months recorded an 8% decline, Koumis said.

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“The total percentage for the first seven months of the year has dropped to 8 per cent, and I emphasise the word dropped because it indicates that the decrease is clearly now on a downward path,” Koumis said.

He pointed to the crisis earlier this year, when a drone strike at RAF Akrotiri and the US-Israeli conflict with Iran triggered thousands of cancellations and a freeze in reservations. Authorities responded with a series of measures as the scale of the disruption became clear, he said.

Limassol’s Capacity Challenge Remains

Limassol Tourism Board President Andreas Tsouloftas said the conversion of small hotels into short-term residential units has reduced available bed capacity. He said this limits the city’s ability to expand beyond its current 12% share of national tourism.

“It would be a good thing if there were interest or some incentives to increase these beds, instead of focusing on just attracting higher spending visitors,” he said.

Pollution Concerns Remain With Shipping Authorities

Asked about reported pollution off the Limassol coast, Koumis said the issue falls under the responsibility of the deputy shipping ministry.

“We know that the issue has already been analysed, it will be managed by the competent authorities of the country and from there on we hope that a solution will be found in the long term,” he said.

Tourism Groups Strengthen Promotion

Pasyxe’s Limassol chief Christos Tsanos said the association is strengthening promotional efforts with the Employers and Industrialists Federation (Oev), the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Keve) and the municipality.

The European Space Agency is assessing whether to increase the launch tempo of its Ariane 6 and Vega-C rockets as satellite demand is expected to peak around 2030.

ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher said a decision may be needed soon if current forecasts hold. Speaking to reporters at an event organized by the AJPAE aerospace media association, he said Europe could face a launch-capacity shortfall later this decade.

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Launch Demand Could Outpace Capacity

Arianespace’s latest forecast calls for nine or 10 Ariane 6 launches annually from 2027. Europe’s own missions, along with potential additional commercial business from Amazon and other customers, could push demand beyond that capacity, Aschbacher said.

“Of course the question is, can we satisfy all these launches? That’s exactly the assessment we are doing right now,” he said, adding that no final decisions have been made.

ESA is already developing its estimates, but Aschbacher said capacity would need to be expanded soon to meet potential launch requirements in 2030. Amazon has booked 18 launches, adding to demand for European launch services.

ESA Considers European Human Spaceflight

The capacity debate comes as ESA’s 23 member states consider whether Europe could eventually send astronauts into orbit on European rockets rather than relying on U.S. launch vehicles.

Officials have described the initiative as a political decision that could increase ESA’s budget by about 10%, depending on how it is financed. The issue is expected to be discussed at a space summit hosted by France next week.

ESA Signals Role In Satellite Industry Consolidation

Aschbacher also indicated that ESA could use its purchasing power to support competition in Europe’s satellite manufacturing industry as a major merger faces antitrust scrutiny.

Airbus, Thales and Leonardo announced plans last year to combine their satellite manufacturing operations into a new company, code-named Project Bromo. The deal remains subject to regulatory approval.

ESA is not involved in the negotiations, but accounts for about 60% of public-sector satellite spending in Europe. Aschbacher declined to support or oppose the transaction, saying the decision rests with the companies and the European Commission.

ESA could instead use industrial policy tools to protect Europe’s wider space ecosystem, including supply chains, he said. Germany’s OHB, the main domestic European competitor to the proposed group, has warned that the merger could weaken its supply network.

Airbus and its partners argue that competition should be assessed globally rather than only within Europe. They point to the need for European companies to compete with Starlink and other large-scale satellite operators led by Elon Musk.

Fifty leading European CEOs and investors have called on EU lawmakers to resist watering down the bloc’s proposed EU Inc. legislation, warning that a weakened version could fail to deliver the scale and simplicity Europe’s founders need to compete globally.

A Bid To Simplify Europe’s Fragmented Business Landscape

The proposed law is designed to make it cheaper and easier for companies to launch and operate across EU borders. Backers say it could remove some of the administrative friction that has long made it difficult for startups and scaleups to grow beyond their home markets.

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Brussels is expected to approve the measure by year-end, but negotiations suggest the final text may fall short of what many founders had hoped for. For a continent where businesses still confront 27 different legal and regulatory systems, even modest reform is being watched closely.

Why Founders See It As A Competitiveness Test

The legislation is part of the European Commission’s broader push to improve the bloc’s competitiveness. Supporters argue that Europe’s companies struggle to scale because legal fragmentation creates red tape, raises compliance costs and slows expansion inside the single market.

In their letter to policymakers, the signatories said lawmakers must ensure the final version creates “a genuinely European company form, rather than adding another layer on top of 27 national systems.”

Among the signatories are investors from Index Ventures, Accel, Balderton, Atomico and EQT.

The Core Demands From Investors And Founders

The group is urging policymakers to preserve the freedom to choose a registered office, allowing founders to base their company in one EU country without being forced to locate all operations there.

They also want eligibility for EU Inc. to extend beyond “innovative” startups. Critics of a narrower approach argue that restricting access could limit adoption and undermine the law’s usefulness. Supporters of tighter rules, however, say a broader scheme could become unwieldy and lose its focus.

Another key demand is the creation of a single, authoritative European register rather than a patchwork interface built on top of 27 national systems. Proponents say such a structure would make company records easier to search and verify across borders.

The signatories are also pushing for employees to be taxed only when they sell company shares, and for employment protections to remain tied to the country where workers are actually based.

What Is At Stake

For Europe’s startup ecosystem, the debate is about more than legal design. It is a test of whether the bloc can build a framework that supports rapid growth at scale, rather than one that simply overlays another layer of complexity on an already fragmented market.

If lawmakers adopt a streamlined version, EU Inc. could become a meaningful step toward a more integrated European business environment. If they do not, founders and investors warn, the law risks becoming another well-intentioned reform that is too diluted to matter.

Cypriot households and businesses could face prolonged financial pressure if the Middle East conflict drives oil prices higher and keeps eurozone inflation elevated.

Economists said the European Central Bank’s latest projections, which see inflation returning to its 2% target only by the end of 2027, suggest price pressures may persist over the medium term.

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Higher Oil Prices Could Bring More Rate Hikes

Sofronis Clerides, an economist at the University of Cyprus, said the ECB’s latest rate increase was broadly expected but warned that a worsening geopolitical situation could push oil prices and inflation higher.

“If the war situation continues to worsen, there is likely to be greater pressure on oil prices and consequently greater inflationary pressures and further interest rate increases in the coming months,” Clerides said.

Floating-rate borrowers would feel the impact most quickly as higher policy rates raise monthly loan repayments and business financing costs. Clerides urged households and companies to plan for the possibility of further increases.

Inflation May Take Longer To Ease

Clerides said the ECB’s end-2027 inflation forecast indicates that policymakers expect current price pressures to persist before eventually easing.

The timeline also suggests that recent rate increases could take months to fully affect economic activity. ECB President Christine Lagarde has said the inflation outlook remains dependent on how the energy shock develops.

Cost-Push Inflation Creates A Policy Dilemma

Marios Christou, an economist at the University of Nicosia, said renewed Middle East fighting and continued tensions involving the US and Iran could further increase oil prices.

Higher energy costs feed into production, transportation and operating expenses, pushing consumer prices higher even without strong demand. “Here we have an increase in inflation, not so much because of demand, but because of rising costs, or cost-push inflation,” Christou said.

That makes the ECB’s response more difficult because higher interest rates are designed primarily to reduce demand, while the current pressure is coming largely from higher costs.

Mortgage Holders Face Particular Pressure

Lower-income households have less room to absorb higher living costs, while people with floating-rate loans face rising repayments. Mortgage holders are particularly exposed because housing loans are typically large and extend over many years.

“The problem arises with mortgages because the loan amounts are high,” Christou said, noting that even changes in interest costs can create significant pressure over long repayment periods.

For Cyprus, prolonged inflation and higher rates could reduce disposable income, increase debt-servicing costs and weigh on household consumption. Businesses could also face higher financing costs as geopolitical uncertainty complicates investment decisions.

Christou said households could face more than a year of continued pressure if inflation does not return to the ECB’s target until the end of 2027.

Amazon is adding new shopping features to Prime Video, allowing viewers to discover products connected to thousands of titles through its existing X-Ray experience.

The company is also introducing “Shop the Scene,” powered by its Lens visual search technology, alongside updates designed to connect video content more directly with shopping.

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From Viewing To Shopping

The new tools build on Shop the Show, launched last year through Amazon’s mobile shopping app. Previously, viewers had to search for “shop the show” to find products related to a program.

Now, X-Ray users can open a Shop tab directly from Fire TV to see products associated with the title. Purchases are completed through the Amazon Shopping app, which can recognize the content being watched and open a synchronized product feed.

The app can also identify what is playing and take viewers directly to a storefront, removing the need for a separate search.

Amazon Targets Shoppable Streaming

Amazon is joining a broader push to combine entertainment and commerce. YouTube offers creator merchandise and shoppable connected-TV ads, while Peacock has tested shoppable programming through Must ShopTV.

Roku has enabled shopping through its remote, while Disney has experimented with shoppable television across Disney+, Hulu and ESPN.

Shop The Scene Uses Visual Search

“Shop the Scene” uses Amazon Lens to identify products or similar items based on what appears on screen, including clothing and home decor.

Exact matches will not always be available because some costumes and other items are custom-made, high-end or unavailable through Amazon sellers. The feature can instead help viewers find similar products or recreate a particular style.

Shop the Scene is available on iOS and Android in the U.S. across more than 600 titles. Meanwhile, Shop the Show is expanding from 1,300 titles to more than 8,000, including Prime Originals, selected licensed content and live sports.

For Amazon, the changes bring shopping closer to the viewing experience, potentially creating another way to generate commerce from Prime Video’s audience.

Bending Spoons is buying Miro for $1.36 billion in cash, implying an equity value of $1.79 billion. That is about 90% below the workplace collaboration company’s $17.5 billion valuation in late 2021.

From Digital Whiteboard To AI Workspace

Founded in 2011 as RealtimeBoard, Miro began as a digital whiteboarding tool for remote teams. Demand surged during the pandemic, helping the company expand from about five million users to roughly 30 million between 2020 and 2022.

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Miro later added more than 250 integrations and partnerships with Atlassian, Cisco, Microsoft and Zoom. Today, it describes itself as an “AI innovation workspace,” offering AI assistants, prototyping tools and integrations with GitHub, Jira and Slack.

Growth Slowed After The Pandemic

Miro now has more than four million paying customers and 100 million total users, with about $600 million in annual recurring revenue. Businesses and enterprises generate roughly 90% of revenue, while the company has about $435 million in net cash and is profitable.

Its valuation decline reflects a broader reset in SaaS markets. As pandemic-driven demand faded, companies cut software spending and consolidated overlapping tools, increasing pressure on stand-alone collaboration platforms competing with broader ecosystems from companies such as Microsoft, Canva and Figma.

Bending Spoons Targets Mature Software

Miro has also reduced its workforce since reaching about 1,200 employees in 2022, cutting 119 positions in February 2023 and another 275 in October 2024, according to its CEO.

The acquisition fits Bending Spoons’ broader strategy of buying established software companies whose valuations have fallen but whose recurring revenue and user bases remain substantial. It previously agreed to acquire Airtable for $1.28 billion after the company had been valued above $11 billion in 2021.

For Bending Spoons, the strategy is a bet on durable revenue and profitability rather than the rapid-growth expectations that drove software valuations during the pandemic.

Austin-based startup Tern has secured an $11.26 million U.S. Army contract to deploy its navigation technology as the military seeks alternatives to GPS.

Under the agreement, the Army will use the system in vehicles, although Tern did not disclose the scale of the rollout. The company describes it as “Google Maps for the battlefield,” providing positioning and routing when GPS is unavailable, unreliable or compromised.

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GPS Disruptions Drive Demand

GPS interference has become increasingly common in conflict zones, including the Middle East and areas around Ukraine and Russia. Those risks have accelerated demand for navigation systems that can operate without satellite signals, while Congress and the Trump administration have also pushed for more resilient alternatives.

How Tern’s System Works

Tern’s technology uses data generated by modern vehicles rather than GPS signals. A device connects to the vehicle’s diagnostics board and sends data to a soldier’s tablet, which provides positioning, navigation and routing.

Co-founder and CEO Shaun Moore said the system passively reads the vehicle’s data and uses proprietary methods to produce navigation information. He declined to disclose the underlying technology.

Processing the data at the vehicle allows the system to determine its position when GPS is degraded, including in tunnels, deserts, off-road environments or areas affected by jamming and spoofing.

From Testing To Deployment

Co-founder Brett Harrison recently tested the system on a 1,300-mile drive from Austin to Laguna Beach, California. He said Tern maintained the vehicle’s position throughout the trip while conventional GPS repeatedly dropped out.

Harrison, a military veteran who served in Afghanistan with a special operations task force, said the company focused from the beginning on building technology that could be deployed and scaled in the field.

“From the very foundation of when we decided to embark upon this effort, we recognized it has to be actually deployable, actually scalable, and not a science project,” he said.

The Army contract moves Tern’s technology from testing toward operational use as GPS interference becomes a growing military concern.

As the EU moves closer to its own version of Delaware’s corporate model, supporters of the EU Inc. campaign are warning lawmakers not to weaken the proposal.

An open letter released Thursday calls on EU institutions to preserve the core design of the proposed company statute. Backed by the EU Inc. campaign, the initiative would create a harmonized legal framework allowing companies to incorporate once and operate across the bloc with less administrative friction.

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Supporters Warn Against A Weakened Compromise

Senior European officials have already backed the initiative, but negotiations between the European Parliament and Council remain underway. Supporters fear national interests could remove features that would make the framework useful to founders and investors.

With about 100 days remaining before the EU institutions’ winter recess, signatories say the proposal could reduce fragmentation, unlock investment and support entrepreneurship if its core provisions remain intact.

Details Could Determine Whether EU Inc. Works

National interests are already shaping the negotiations. Germany’s notaries have criticized parts of the European Commission’s proposal, highlighting the competing priorities involved in EU lawmaking.

The campaign is particularly focused on creating a single central registry and taxing employees on stock options only when they sell their shares. Supporters argue that such provisions could determine whether founders actually choose to use the new legal structure.

Last year, Martin Mignot, a partner at Index Ventures and EU Inc. supporter, warned that “the devil is in the details” and said advocates would closely monitor the final legislation.

Investors And Founders Back The Campaign

The latest letter includes investors such as Sonali De Rycker of Accel, Michael Moritz of Sequoia and Niklas Zennström, founder of Atomico.

Entrepreneurs from companies including Alan, ElevenLabs, Lovable, Mistral and Synthesia have also signed. Some of those businesses are headquartered in the US, reinforcing the campaign’s argument that Europe needs a corporate framework capable of supporting fast-growing companies on the continent.

The European Central Bank raised interest rates again Thursday as the eurozone absorbs a new energy shock and inflation moves further above target.

Its Governing Council lifted the deposit facility rate from 2.25% to 2.5%, marking the second increase since June 11. The main refinancing rate rose to 2.65%, while the marginal lending facility increased to 2.9%.

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Energy Drives Higher Inflation

In its statement, the ECB said the conflict in the Middle East continues to push inflation higher and warned that price pressures could remain above target for an extended period.

Eurozone inflation rose to 3.3% in August from 2.9% in July, reaching its highest level since September 2023. Energy inflation jumped to 14.3% from 10.3% as tensions around the Strait of Hormuz constrained crude supplies, while Brent crude moved above $100 a barrel.

Underlying pressures remained more contained. Core inflation eased to 2.4% from 2.5%, while services inflation fell to 3% from 3.3%, providing limited evidence that higher energy costs are spreading across the wider economy.

ECB Sees A Different Inflation Shock

ECB economists estimated earlier this month that adverse energy supply factors accounted for about 90% of the increase in energy inflation between January and May. Their analysis found that demand and public policy stimulus played smaller roles in the latest increase.

That differs from the 2021-22 inflation surge, when broader price pressures prompted central banks to pursue much more aggressive rate increases.

Inflation also varies significantly across the eurozone. Spain recorded 4.5% in August, compared with 2.9% in Germany and 2.7% in France, showing how differently energy costs are feeding into domestic prices.

Further Rate Hikes Remain Possible

Economic growth has remained relatively resilient, but there is little evidence of widespread overheating. Even after Thursday’s increase, the deposit rate remains within the ECB’s estimated neutral range.

ECB President Christine Lagarde had signaled in July that another increase was possible, saying the “burden of proof is on data” and that the full impact of the energy shock had yet to emerge.

Updated ECB projections accompanied Thursday’s decision, although their cutoff date was about two weeks before the meeting. Recent oil price increases and European government bond yields reaching 15-year highs are therefore not fully reflected in the forecasts.

Global Central Banks Prepare Their Decisions

Attention now turns to other major central banks. The Federal Reserve is due to decide on Sept. 16, followed by the Bank of Japan on Sept. 18, while the Bank of England is expected to hold its rate at 3.75% on Sept. 17.

Cyprus’ long-term business competitiveness will increasingly depend on how quickly the economy adopts green and digital technologies, Commerce Minister Michael Damianos said Thursday.

More than €500 million has been secured for related measures during the 2021-2027 programming period, with funding supporting entrepreneurship, industrial development, energy upgrades, the circular economy and business digitalization.

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AI, Cybersecurity And Skills Pose Key Challenges

Speaking at the first Cyprus IT Directors Forum during the third Cyprus Tech Summit, Damianos said businesses should adopt artificial intelligence selectively, focusing on tools that solve practical problems, improve decisions and deliver measurable value.

Cybersecurity is becoming equally important as more business activity moves online, he said, linking digital resilience to business continuity, governance and trust. Human resources remain another challenge, with digital investment requiring specialized skills, continuous training and workplaces that can adapt to technological change.

Technology Can Help Smaller Businesses Compete

For Cyprus’ small, open economy, productivity, international market access and the ability to adapt quickly are increasingly important. Damianos said technology can improve customer service, inventory and supply chains in retail, while helping manufacturers increase efficiency, reduce energy and raw-material use, and strengthen quality control.

Small and medium-sized businesses can also use technology to offset disadvantages of scale and create new opportunities for growth.

CIOs Take On A Broader Strategic Role

Damianos said chief information officers are increasingly moving beyond IT systems and infrastructure to participate in business strategy and executive decision-making.

“Security is now a matter of business continuity, corporate governance and trust,” he said.

The government, he added, should not replace private-sector initiative but can reduce barriers, support investment and strengthen cooperation among businesses, technology companies, research institutions and the public sector.

Through funding, skills development and cooperation, Damianos said Cyprus can strengthen productivity, resilience and competitiveness as the economy undergoes its green and digital transition.