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Cyprus Fiscal Surplus Set To Soar to €1.5 Billion In 2024: A Deep Dive Into Revenue Growth

by News Editor
March 4, 2025

Preliminary economic data from the Statistical Service of Cyprus paints an optimistic picture for 2024, forecasting a significant fiscal surplus of €1.5 billion, equivalent to 4.5% of the nation’s GDP. This is more than double the surplus achieved in 2023, which stood at €631.5 million or 2% of GDP.

Revenue Growth At 7.8%

For 2024, total revenues are projected to rise to €14.83 billion, marking a notable increase of €1.07 billion compared to 2023 (+7.8%). Key revenue boosts stem from the following areas:

  • Production and Import Taxes: €4.68 billion (+5.5%)
  • Net VAT Revenues: €3.14 billion (+5.6%)
  • Income and Wealth Taxes: €3.81 billion (+16.7%)
  • Service Revenue: €1.09 billion (+28.1%)
  • Social Contributions: €4.5 billion (+2.7%)

Conversely, capital transfers saw a decrease of 38.4%, settling at €220.4 million.

Expenditure Increase Marginal At 1.5%

Total expenditures for 2024 are anticipated to be €13.33 billion, a nominal rise of €197.4 million (+1.5%) compared to 2023.

Notable expenditure increases occurred in:

  • Employee Compensation: €3.86 billion (+7.5%)
  • Social Benefits: €5.3 billion (+7.4%)
  • Interest Payments: €433.9 million (+6.3%)

Reduction areas included:

  • Current Transfers: €887.7 million (-24.2%)
  • Capital Accounts: €1.17 billion (-24.5%)
  • Subsidies: €153.4 million (-3.6%)

The projected fiscal surplus of 4.5% of GDP underscores Cyprus’s fiscal stability and increased tax revenue intake, despite moderate expenditure growth. This optimism aligns with Cyprus’s promising inflation outlook as seen in recent analysis.

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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