The economy of Northern Cyprus is dominated by the services sector including the public sector, trade, tourism and education, with smaller agriculture and light manufacturing sectors.
The economy in North Cyprus is severely hampered by its continuing isolation and the embargoes placed upon it. It relies heavily on Turkey for economic and monetary support. In recent years the construction industry has played in a big part in North Cyprus’ developing fortunes.

A building boom started in 2002 – 2003 and created an opportunity for foreign buyers to buy up holiday homes at relatively cheap prices – particularly when compared to other parts of Europe – and this helped the economy in North Cyprus enormously.

The country also manages to get by economically speaking thanks to its main service industries such as tourism, (although projected figures are not good for the next few years thanks to the state of the global economy), and the prosperous North Cyprus university education sector.
North Cyprus also has manufacturing sectors which help support the economy, and agriculture still has an important part to play with citrus fruits, potatoes and other vegetables being the main products produced, sold and exported to Turkey for example. The stability of the Turkish lira currency in North Cyprus over recent years has also helped to sustain growth.

North Cyprus sells around half of its exports to countries in the Middle East, but is still fairly dependent on foreign aid, aid programs and development loans from Turkey. Since the border between the North and South of the island opened in 2003, there has been an increase in the retail sector, mainly clothing related, with Greek Cypriots spending their cash shopping in North Cyprus.