Bulgaria's finance minister, who was initially targeting rapid accession to the euro zone, has confirmed the country is in no hurry to adopt the single currency.
"We will not make any move toward the switchover in the next two years," Simeon Djankov told reporters in Vienna on Thursday.
The statement is in line with the opinion of local analysts, who have tried to tone down the cabinet's enthusiasm for adopting rapidly the common European currency, saying it makes more sense for the...
Bulgaria has registered an increase in its foreign direct investment in January-May 2012 year-on-year, according to the latest data of the Bulgarian National Bank released on Monday.
According to the Bulgarian National Bank's preliminary data, the foreign direct investment in Bulgaria for January - May 2012 increased by EUR 473.8 M (1.2% of GDP), compared to an increase of EUR 72.2 million (0.2% of GDP) for January – May 2011.
Bulgaria's attracted Equity Capital (acquisition/disposal of...
Bulgaria's Currency Board Is Super Stable
(Sofia, Jan 12) - "The currency board functioning in Bulgaria is super-stable," the monthly analysis of Raiffeissen Bank Bulgaria reads.
The experts have calculated that at the end of November 2012 the currency board's reserves amount to 15.1 billion euro, which is an increase by 2.2 million euro from a month ago.
The board's reserves have increased by 1.9 billion euro (14.4%) year-on-year, which is a surplus of about 89% to the minimum...
Wall Street legend and highly successful international investor, author and commodities expert, Jim Rogers has said he is considering investing in Bulgaria.
Bulgaria is among the few countries, in which he is considering investing right now, since they have made the most improvement since his latest trip around the world, the billionaire, currently based in Singapore, said in an interview for Gold Radio Cafй.
He joined the broadcast for a brief discussion on his new book "Street Smarts:...
Italian companies may be attracted in privatization projects, including for tourist sites, as well as concessions agreements and modernization schemes for airports, and construction and reconstruction of road and railway infrastructure in Bulgaria, according to Minister Bozhidar Lukarski.
Speaking Tuesday at the opening of an economic forum titled “Bulgaria and Italy: Together for Achieving Growth”, Lukarski pointed out that the trade and economic cooperation between Bulgaria and Italy...
“The opportunities OP Environment provides in the previous and the new programme periods establish prerequisites for a huge volume of work on designing and construction of ecological infrastructure as well as possibilities for the state to tackle challenges,“ said Ivelina Vasileva, Bulgarian Minister of Environment and Water, speaking at an annual conference themed “Strategic infrastructure and investments – Bulgaria and the Western Balkans“, FOCUS News Agency reported.
“In the...
Bulgaria's popular southern Black Sea resort of Sunny Beach wants British police officers to patrol it during the next tourist season.
"We are sure this would be a fairly effective way of collaboration, because it would improve the tourists' security. It would create some respect in our foreign guests who break and demolish things, create conflicts and offend police officers," Georgi Nedelchev, chair of the Sunny Beach hotel owners' union, said.
Nedelchev was positive that the police...
The number of arrivals of visitors from abroad to Bulgaria in July 2011 was 1 609 900, which indicates a 2.6% increase year on year, the country's National Statistical Institute says.
Tourism is the main reason for the increase, as the arrivals with holiday and recreation purpose increased by 4.7% compared to the corresponding month of 2010 and composed the greatest share of the total number of foreigners visited Bulgaria – 60.9%
A total of 25% of the visitors passed transit, while 6.7...
Bulgaria's government of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and his center-right GERB party will not raise taxes until its term ends in 2013, the country's Finance Minister and Deputy PM Simeon Djankov promised Thursday.
In in interview for the Bulgarian National Television, Djankov also revealed he has reached a consensus with Interior Minister and fellow-Deputy PM Tsvetan Tsvetanov concerning the "new state budget balance" issue.
Recently, the Finance Minister stated that the Bulgarian...
Bulgaria's Cabinet has declared the road from the Danube city of Ruse on the Romanian border to the Makaza Pass on the Greece border to be a project "of national importance" in a long-awaited move.
The Ruse-Makaza road linking Romania and Greece through Central Bulgaria is supposed to be part of the Pan-European Transport Corridor No. 9 leading from Helsinki, the Baltic states, Moscow, Kiev, and Bucharest to the Greek port of Alexandroupolis on the Aegean.
The international transport...
A peculiar tourist attraction – a 45-meter-long artificial dinosaur has arrived in Bulgaria's Black Sea capital Varna.
The curious are welcome to take a tour inside the giant Hollywood-manufactured beast and feel its heartbeat and breathing, as well as experience a variety of visual and sound effects.
The "creature" is one of only seven existing in the world, the Bulgarian BGNES news agency says, pointing out they trigger immense interest in all cities they travel through.
The...
Bulgaria's Cabinet has assigned the management of the future civilian airport at the Black Sea town of Balchik to Sofia International Airport.
“Sofia Airport, whose parent organization is the Ministry of Transport, IT and Communications, has sufficient management experience that will guarantee the execution of the project [for Balchik Airport]. This will create an opportunity for Balchik Airport to start accepting civilian flights shortly,” the Bulgarian government said in its...
The chaotic urban development of the Bulgarian Black Sea resorts has been exposed as the Regional Development Ministry is trying to figure out how many tourists reside in each one of them over the summer.
"The Bulgarian state will not pour a single buck into the construction of water purification facilities in the resorts until it gets precise data about the residents of each municipality from at least three sources," Bulgarian Regional Development Minister Rosen Plevneliev declared...
Bulgaria's Customs Agency is checking whether Lukoil Neftochim is being siphoned off by its subsidiary Litasco, which controls volumes entering and exiting the oil refinery.
The announcement was made Sunday by Customs Agency head Vanyo Tanov in interview for the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR).
He explained that Litasco was an intermediary company registered in Switzerland.
As Litasco had been tasked with determining both crude oil prices and prices of exported end-products, Tanov...
The Bulgarian government has granted Trans-Balkan Pipeline, a Bulgarian-Greek-Russian project company, another extension on the environmental assessment of the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline project.
Bulgaria's Environment Ministry is granting TBP until September 30, 2011, to submit anew its environment assessment impact study on the troubled oil pipeline project.
The new extension means that the deadline for the final decision of the Bulgarian Environment Ministry and the Cabinet as...
The project for the underground network of Bulgaria's capital Sofia is exemplary, according to a source in the European Commission, reports Bulgarian EU Funds Minsiter Tomislav Donchev.
According to Donchev, the DG Regional Policy representative has said that anyone building a city metro should go to Bulgaria to learn from the way the Sofia network is being built.
"Your metro is an excellent project, both in terms of speed and quality," reported the eurocrat's words a happy Minister...
Lukoil Bulgaria has been chronically failing to adequately pay its taxes, according to Bulgarian Customs Agency head Vanyo Tanov.
Recently a controversy developed in Bulgaria, after Tanov ordered a retraction of operation licenses of Lukoil Neftochim - the country's largest refinery - on the grounds it did not adequately disclose the amounts of fuel it is selling.
Lukoil appealed and the courts gave it back the right to operate, on the grounds that if it stopped that would cause a...
Bulgaria's Minister of Regional Development and Public Works, Rosen Plevneliev, is attending Friday the opening of the public tender bids for Lot 4 of the Struma Highway.
The news was reported by the TV channel bTV.
Lot 4 runs between the southern town of Sandanski and Kulata on the Greek border and is 15 km-long. The investment amount is estimated at EUR 53 M, and it is financed by the EU operational program Transport.
The Struma Highway starts at the Daskalovo road junction to the...
The Bulgarian Air Traffic Services Authority (BULATSA) and construction company Glavbolgarstroy have signed a contract for the preliminary design and construction of a new control tower at Sofia Airport.
The air traffic control tower will be 50 meters high and will be built near Terminal 2 so that the two units suit each other in terms of architecture.
"The height and the location of the tower have been selected so as to ensure that the airport will remain functional for at least 40...
A total of 15 Bulgarian and foreign companies have applied in the tender to build Lot 4 of Bulgaria's southwestern Struma Highway, the Road Infrastructure Agency announced upon opening the bids.
The applicants are from Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Italy, and Turkey, Bulgaia's Regional Development Minister Rosen Plevneliev announced. Their number is the second highest number of bidders for a highway section in Bulgaria after earlier this year 17 companies competed for one of...
Bulgaria's troubled state railway company BDZ has managed to increase its revenues from ticket sales by boosting its travel inspections and policing.
In January-July 2011, BDZ's revenues from the sale of tickets on board of trains grew by almost 11% compared with the same period of 2010, while in July alone, the respective revenues rose by 14%, the company announced Friday.
"As a result of the constant measures that the BDZ EAD Holding is implementing in order to reduce to the minimum the...
Data from the Bulgarian National Statistical Institute (NSI) is confirming the various reports that Bulgaria's tourism sector is enjoying a very strong summer season in 2011.
The total revenue from tourist accommodation (i.e. hotel room and apartment stays) in Bulgaria in the second quarter of 2011 reached BGN 165.3 M, an increase of 14.4% year-on-year compared with the same quarter of 2010, NSI announced Thursday.
The accommodation income from foreign tourists in Q2 is reported to have...
One of the most popular magazines in the music world, Rolling Stone, has stopped to appear in a Bulgarian language edition less than two years after its launch.
Rolling Stone stepped on the Bulgarian market in November 2009 with the ambition to play a significant role in covering the musical and entertainment interests of the young people of Bulgaria, as it has successfully done in the US for more that 40 years.
Due to the adverse economic climate in Bulgaria, however, the publishers...
Bulgaria must seek new markets for its products, and the countries in Southern Africa such as Zambia offer big opportunities, according to officials from the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI).
The business opportunities in Zambia have been surveyed by Raycho Iliev, BCCI representative for Southern Africa, who has informed about them BCCI Chair Tsvetan Simeonov in a letter, the Chamber's press service announced.
Iliev has informed that Zambia has been included in EU's trade...
The Gross Domestic Product, GDP, increased by 0.2% in both the Eurozone and the EU during the second quarter of 2011, compared with the previous quarter, according to flash estimates.
In the first quarter of 2011, growth rates were +0.8% in both zones.
The estimates were published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.
Compared with the same quarter of the previous year, seasonally adjusted GDP increased by 1.7% in both zones in the second quarter of 2011, after...
Bulgarian Transport Minister Ivaylo Moskovski will attend Friday the signing of a contract for the preliminary design and construction of a new control tower at Sofia Airport.
The document will be signed by the Director General of the Bulgarian Air Traffic Services Authority (BULATSA) Diyan Dinev, Glavbolgarstroy Chief Executive Officer Pavel Kalistratov and Nina Stoyanova, Executive Director and member of the Managing Board of Glavbolgarstroy.
The new air traffic control tower is...
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