Major issue of today’s press is the conference that will be held at the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism. According to newspaper “Alithia”, the conference will mostly examine the reasons of the great decrease in tourism during August, as well as possible problems that will arise in case USA attacks Iraq.

On the other hand, newspaper “Phileleftheros” mentions that the conference will examine as to what extent America’s intervention in Iraq will affect tourism in Cyprus and how Cyprus will deal with the consequences of this act.

Financial press is fairly limited today, as most newspapers do not include financial insets.

However, the inset “Economy” of newspaper “Phileleftheros” under the title “Further increases in current expenditure” mentions that as a result of considerable reductions in capital expenditure growth rate, the total government expenditure on 2001 increased at slower rate compared to 2002. The newspaper highlights that total expenditure and net borrowing raised to CYP 2,240.7 million during 2001 compared to CYP 2,016.0 million during 2000, that is, 11.1% compared to 12.5% during 2000 and 3.5% during 1999. During 2001, the government expenditure as a proportion of GNP reached 38.2% compared to 36.8% during 2000. The current and capital expenditure growth rate was 12.01% and 0.6% compared to 12.2% and 11.9% during 2000. Current expenditure maintained the largest part of total expenditure and -during 2001- the rate grew to 89.7%. The proportion on capital expenditure in terms of total expenditure decreased by 9,7% in comparison to the 10,7% decrease in 2000.

Elsewhere, the newspaper mentions that during the first eight months of 2002 Cyprus inflation (2.77%) was higher compared to euro zone countries average inflation.

Newspaper “Simerini” deals with the issue of taxi drivers and their request for fare raises by 38%.