Offshore Economy - Cyprus

The location of Cyprus, which has broughtexports.North Cyprus HolidaysGreek Cyprus's
unwelcome visitors in the pas, has hadprincipal trading partner is the European Union,
compensations in the economic sphere. Tourism iswhich supplies just over half the island's imports
the most obvious of these, with Greek Cyprusand takes just under half its exports. The Turkish
welcoming around 2 million and Turkish CyprusCypriot sector's main partner is Turkey, followed
350,000 visitors each year, and the number isby the European Union.
growing. Tourism forms the principal source ofBanker's Draft; Banking is an important growth
foreign exchange, and, in addition, is a majorarea, as Greek Cyprus develops as an offshore
provider of jobs, both directly and indirectly.centre, but is one which has credibility problems to
Harvest The Profit; Agriculture remains theovercome before achieving widespread
biggest economic sector, comprising severalacceptance. The government has been cautious in
subsectors, of which citrus fruit is the mostgranting licences, preferring to build slowly on a
important in terms of exports, followed bybase of reputable banks. Recent years saw an
potatoes, grapes, and wine. The light-industrialinflux of dollars from Russia and Yugoslavia-the
sector is large and growing, with exports oforigins of some of this money can really only be
clothing and footwear combined outweighing thedescribed as 'suspect'.
revenue generated by the island's agricultural