Cypriot GDP contracted by 0.7 percent in the first quarter of 2014, a slight improvement on the 0.8 percent drop in the previous three months, the latest official estimate showed on Friday.
The figure is the same as given in a flash estimate by the state statistical service on May 15.

The euro strengthened against the dollar Thursday in choppy trade after investors weighed the European Central Bank's moves to bolster fragile eurozone growth and prevent deflation.
The euro tumbled to $1.35 after the ECB cut its key interest rates to new all-time lows and announced other aggressive measures.

Central banks can't fix everything.
The European Central Bank took bold steps Thursday to protect Europe's fragile economic recovery, cutting interest rates and offering to pump more money into the financial system.

China's economy will moderate over the next few years as Beijing looks to rebalance it, the World Bank said Friday, but it warned of risks from local government debt, a cooling real estate sector and an uncertain export recovery.
The bank's Economic Update on China comes amid fears the Asian giant and driver of global growth is slowing too much, as the leadership looks to pivot towards private, domestic demand from a reliance on big-ticket government investment projects.

Standard & Poor's was found liable Friday for investment losses incurred by Australian councils in the lead-up to the global financial crisis, after a court dismissed its appeal against a landmark 2012 ruling.
The full bench of the Federal Court of Australia threw out the appeal by the ratings agency, ABN AMRO Bank and Australian firm Local Government Financial Services (LGFS) and upheld the original judgement.

The board of French BNP Paribas is split over strategy in the face of a likely huge fine by US authorities on charges of sanctions-busting, with the fate of its chief executive on the line, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
The split is also complicating the way the bank communicates with French authorities, the newspaper reported, hours before President Francois Hollande was expected to plead the bank's case with US President Barack Obama during a dinner in Paris.

Russia hopes to develop North Korea's mineral resources after canceling the isolated state's debts, the minister for development of Far Eastern Russia, Alexander Galushka, said on Thursday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin in May signed a law canceling 90 percent of North Korea's $10.94 billion debt to Russia from Soviet-era loans.

Bangladesh is to unveil a new "green tax" Thursday that will force polluting factories to pay extra levies as it looks to clean up the country's increasingly dirty rivers and air, an official said Thursday.
The tax will be introduced as part of the annual budget for 2014-15, which will also see a focus on giant new infrastructure projects such as a metro in the cramped capital Dhaka and a new nuclear power plant.

Subway workers in Sao Paulo went on strike Thursday, one week before the World Cup opens in the Brazilian mega-city, where protests against government spending on the tournament erupted a year ago.
The Sao Paulo metro is the main transport link to the economic capital's World Cup host stadium, and the indefinite strike could pose a massive logistical headache for organizers.

For the second year in a row, Bader has announced the launch of its Startup Cup Business Competition, a worldwide program started by Kauffman Foundation and adopted by Bader in its Lebanese version, with the support of Bank Audi, a press release said on Wednesday.
The Bader Startup Cup is a locally driven business model competition that serves as an ideal platform for entrepreneurs to launch their ideas into the marketplace.
