Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1511181
€1.50 THURSDAY 9 NOVEMBER 2023 • ISSUE 231 WWW.BUSINESSTODAY.COM.MT PAGE 3 PAGE 4 PAGE 2 Panama off FATF grey list after four years, but EU's Bulgaria is now on With tourists numbers up, MTA snub in Budget means little to MHRA boss PAUL COCKS PANAMA is off the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)'s so-called grey list after four years as a result of its efforts to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. e FATF announcement follows an Oc- tober plenary in Paris, providing confir- mation that Panama's strengthened AML (anti-money laundering) framework and counter-terrorism financing system can adhere to the globally accepted standards of the AML regime, enhancing interna- tional transparency. e decision received support from Lat- in American, Asian, and European coun- tries, and from the international organi- sations and the Latin American Financial Action Group (GAFILAT), of which Pan- ama has been a member since 2010. STAR PERFORMER MSE FTSE 100 EUR EXCHANGE RATES Trading Date: 8 Nov 2023 Number of Trades: 74 Turnover: €676,855.80 MSE TRX Index: 7713.546 Change: 0.230% Name: 4% MIDI PLC EUR MT0000421223 - Currency € Last Traded: 8 Nov 2023 Price 99.900 Change +4.850 US Dollar 1.0522 British Pound: 0.86477 Japanese Yen: 144.59 Australian Dollar: 1.5451 Swiss Franc: 0.98700 7,613.67 78.12 7,613.39 / 7,312.00 Value Net variation High / Low +0.86% PAUL COCKS GOVERNMENT'S decision to reduce the budget of the Malta Tourism Au- thority by €9.5 million for 2024 will not stop the growth in the number of tour- ists visiting Malta, the president of the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Associa- tion said. Tony Zahra told Business Today that everything points to the tourism indus- try seeing increased growth in 2024. "For next year, in fact, the number of seats available should see an increase of 1% to 2%," he said. During last week's 2024 Budget speech, finance minister Clyde Carua- na announced a €9.5 million cut in the MTA's money allocation for next year. Industrial producer prices up by 0.5% in the euro area and by 0.6% in the EU in September Down by 12.4% in the euro area and by 11.2% in the EU compared with September 2022 Tony Zahra FATF delegates during the plenary meeitng in October