Despite the serious problems still confronting the Cyprus economy, the Limassol business community has not given up and is facing the future with cautious optimism. This is the main conclusion deriving from the Chamber Business Barometer, the first of its kind, that was concluded in October.

The positive messages emanating from the Barometer, and which are of course representative of the opinions, assessments and planning of the enterprises that chose to participate in the whole venture, can be summed up as follows:

·        60% of participants said that they are going to employ new staff over the next three months.

·        59% said that they were very or fairly satisfied with the return on their investments over the past 12 months, whereas fewer than 7% were dissatisfied.

·        64% said that they would undertake new investments in the coming three months.

·        48% said that their confidence in the prospects of the Cyprus economy had increased during the last three months, as opposed to only 2% who spoke of reduced confidence.

·        45% said that they foresaw an increase in their domestic sales in the next three months. Only 5.5% forecast a decrease.

The detailed findings of the Barometer, accompanied by relevant charts, will soon be accessible on the Chamber website.