NICOSIA (REUTERS) - Cyprus' central bank said on Thursday that most of the depositors who lost money at bailed-out Bank of Cyprus were from overseas and that Cypriots had not been hit as hard as might have been expected.

"Seventy per cent of the value of deposits concerned overseas residents, leaving Cypriot households and businesses unaffected to a greater extent than was possibly expected," Central Bank of Cyprus Governor Panicos Demetriades told a news conference.

He said overall 96 per cent of deposits in Cyprus were unaffected by losses on larger accounts required by the euro zone in exchange for aid to the overly indebted country.