Turkish Cypriots have spent twice the amount of money in South Cyprus in the past eight months compared to what Greek Cypriots have spent in the TRNC and Turkey, says a credit-card processing company, ‘Cyprus Mail’ reports.
According to JCC between 1st January and 31st August, Turkish Cypriots spent 9.5 million euros in the South compared with 4.1 million euros spent by Greek Cypriots in the TRNC and Turkey.
In a breakdown of spending patterns, JCC says that Turkish Cypriots spent at total of 9,554,318 euros, of which 2m was spent in supermarkets, 2.8m on clothing and at other stores and 1.4m on DIY and furniture stores.
Meanwhile, Greek Cypriots mostly spend their money in casinos and hotels –1.6m in hotels and 791,000 on entertainment. Greek Cypriots spent 751,000 euros on airline tickets departing from Ercan airport.
The report goes on to say that in the month of August, credit card transactions in the North and Turkey amounted to 1.1m euros, out of which 200,000 was spent in the North on hotels, 108,000 on airlines and 101,000 on entertainment.
Turkish Cypriots spent 1.5m euros in the South in August, 300,000 went to supermarkets, 457,000 in retail stores and 242,000 spent in hotels.
JCC’s report brought an indignant reaction by the Citizen’s Alliance party which said that it is unacceptable that Greek Cypriots spent money in the North. It demanded that the South’s Inland Revenue provide details from citizens’ tax returns. “Who are these people and what are their incomes?” asked the party.
