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Cyprus Economy In 2024: Growth In Key Sectors, But Trade Faces Challenges

by THEFUTURE.TEAM
February 13, 2025

Cyprus experienced notable economic growth in 2024, driven by increases in construction, manufacturing, tourism, and vehicle registrations. However, trade performance weakened, with both imports and exports declining. The latest data from CySTAT provides a comprehensive overview of these trends.

Key Figures

  • Construction Growth: Building permits reached 1.72 million square meters (January–August 2024), an 18% increase compared to the same period in 2023.
  • Manufacturing Expansion: Industrial production rose 1.8% from January to November 2024, reflecting steady growth in the sector.
  • Increase in Vehicle Registrations: Total vehicle registrations grew 9.1%, reaching 49,616; Private saloon car registrations increased 11.2%, while light goods vehicle sales surged 36.1%.
  • Consumer Price Index: Inflation remained moderate, with the CPI rising 1.8% for the year.
  • Tourism Growth: Tourist arrivals reached 4,040,200, marking a 5.1% increase compared to 2023.
  • Decline in Trade Performance: Imports fell 7%, totaling €12.26 billion; Exports declined 12.5%, amounting to €4.12 billion.

The data highlights strong domestic economic activity but also signals potential challenges in external trade.

The AI Agent Revolution: Can the Industry Handle the Compute Surge?

by THEFUTURE.TEAM
March 28, 2025

As AI agents evolve from simple chatbots into complex, autonomous assistants, the tech industry faces a new challenge: Is there enough computing power to support them? With AI agents poised to become integral in various industries, computational demands are rising rapidly.

A recent Barclays report forecasts that the AI industry can support between 1.5 billion and 22 billion AI agents, potentially revolutionizing white-collar work. However, the increase in AI’s capabilities comes at a cost. AI agents, unlike chatbots, generate significantly more tokens—up to 25 times more per query—requiring far greater computing power.

Tokens, the fundamental units of generative AI, represent fragmented parts of language to simplify processing. This increase in token generation is linked to reasoning models, like OpenAI’s o1 and DeepSeek’s R1, which break tasks into smaller, manageable chunks. As AI agents process more complex tasks, the tokens multiply, driving up the demand for AI chips and computational capacity.

Barclays analysts caution that while the current infrastructure can handle a significant volume of agents, the rise of these “super agents” might outpace available resources, requiring additional chips and servers to meet demand. OpenAI’s ChatGPT Pro, for example, generates around 9.4 million tokens annually per subscriber, highlighting just how computationally expensive these reasoning models can be.

In essence, the tech industry is at a critical juncture. While AI agents show immense potential, their expansion could strain the limits of current computing infrastructure. The question is, can the industry keep up with the demand?

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