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...
Bulgarian Gmail users can make low-cost calls from within the popular e-mail service to a traditional landline or mobile phone number as of August 4.
A year after Google enabled calling mobiles and landlines directly from within Gmail for US and Canadian users, the company expanded this feature overnight to Bulgaria and internationally.
With support for 38 languages, the international expansion of Google Voice's call-out functionality is expected to prove a resilient competitor to Skype...
Bulgaria features on the top 10 of destinations for adventure tourism among developing countries, a survey of George Washington University in Washington DC has found.
Among the developing countries, Israel, Slovakia and Chile have been highlited as the leaders in terms of adventure tourism potential, followed by Estonia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Slovenia.
Switzerland, Iceland and New Zealand have topped the list of developed countries. Canada, Germany and Sweden have been also...
Bulgaria's Economy and Energy Minister, Traiko Traikov, has requested a probe of the Commission for Competition Protection, KZK, into a possible monopoly on the jet fuel market in the country.
The information was announced by Traikov in a Wednesday interview for the Bulgarian, National Television, BNT, saying the probe stems from the case with the revoked license of the Lukoil Bulgaria company, which the Sofia City Administrative Court reinstated Monday.
The Minister pointed out the...
The lively Sofia Central Park, known as Borisova Gradina, named after Bulgaria's last king, Boris III, became Wednesday property of Sofia City Hall.
The decision was made by the Council of Ministers during their regularly scheduled meeting. With the decision, the Sofia City Hall is to manage and maintain the entire territory of the park – 33 hectares, part of which until now was owned by the State.
Last week the Sofia municipal council voted a proposal to begin managing 32.9 hectares of...
The Bulgarian Cabinet created Wednesday a limited state company for the management of Balchik Airport, following up on plans to transform the idling military facility into an international airport.
The company, with capital of BGN 0.39 M, will be exclusively owned by the state, with the Minister of Transport (at present, Ivailo Moskovski) exercising the state's ownership.
Balchik is located north of Varna, Bulgaria's largest Black Sea city and the site of the country's two seaside...
Nearly 8 000 from the over 49 000 business enterprises established in Bulgaria in 2008 have been closed a year later.
The data comes from a study of the Bulgarian National Statistics Institute, NSI, released Tuesday under the title 2009 Business Demography.
The most stable businesses during the first year of the economic crisis were in the production and supply of electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning, while real estate companies were at the other end of the ranking.
The NSI...
Driven by strong exports, as well as the good performance of the industry and services sectors, the Bulgarian economy has started to expand, but too weakly and unsteadily, a local think-tank has said.
Bulgaria's gross domestic product will grow by up to 2.5-3% in 2011, the experts from the Center for Economic Development stated in their quarterly report.
The economy expanded by 2% in the second quarter on an annual basis, down by 1.4% in comparison with the previous quarter, which marked...
Bulgaria's Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, and the Minister of Regional Policy and Public Works, Rosen Plevneliev, broke the ground of Lot 1 of Maritsa highway.
The ceremony took place Tuesday near the southern town of Chirpan.
The segment Orizovo-Dimitrovgrad is 31.4-km long and is part of the trans-European highway, connecting Central and Eastern Europe with the Middle East and Asia. It is scheduled to be completed in 25 months by the Italian contractor Cooperativa Muratori & Cementisti,...
Russian authorities have confirmed that the country's second-biggest bank VTB plans the acquisition of a majority stake in Bulgaria's cigarette maker Bulgartabac, local media reported.
The bank will most probably resell the holding after winning the tender, Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper hinted by saying that it is not clear exactly who the bank represents.
Austria-registered BT Invest, behind which stands Russia's second-biggest bank VTB, remained the only bidder for the Bulgarian tobacco...
The Bulgarian Finance Ministry has registered a budget deficit of BGN 650 M for the first half of 2011 or 0.9% of the expected GDP.
In 2010, the budget deficit at the end of June, accumulated during the first six months of the year, has been BGN 1.5 B, or 2.2% from the Gross Domestic Product, GDP.
The Ministry, which is in charge of the monthly budget bulletin, further reports a BGN 53 M deficit for June.
The data is from the consolidated fiscal program, which includes the national...
The British company Farans Construction Ltd has sent a letter to the Bulgarian cabinet, stating it is willing to build a new prison in Sofia.
The company, based in Ireland, cited by the Bulgarian daily 24 Chassa (24 Hours), informs it can build two prison complexes for 2 000 inmates in 30 months.
The company has experience if the construction of prisons, public buildings and bridges.
The Bulgarian Justice Ministry announced, as early as November 2009, it was looking for a land plot and...
Several years will be needed for the new office space in the Bulgarian capital Sofia to be absorbed by the market, according to a report of Colliers International.
The total area of "modern office space" in Sofia has reached 1.378 million square meters in the first half of 2011, a growth of 5% year-on-year, with many new buildings completed in the outskirts of the city, reveals the report of Colliers International, a real estate consultancy.
About 65% (898 000 square meters) of the office...
Steve Hanke, the architect of Bulgaria's currency regime and one of the opponents of its Eurozone aspirations says the reason for the good state of the Bulgarian economy is the disciplining role of the currency board.
Hanke spoke Saturday in an interview for the Bulgarian National Radio, BNR, agreeing with statements of the Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Simeon Djankov, that at this stage Bulgaria will refrain from applying for Eurozone membership.
Djankov announced...
Bulgaria's Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, officially opened Saturday the brand-new Sofia sports facility "Armeets Arena.
The Mayor of Sofia, Yordanka Fandakova, and the Minister of Sports and Youth, Svilen Neykov, also attended the ceremony. They all watched the first ever sports competition to be held in the hall – a friendly game between the men national volleyball teams of Bulgaria and Serbia.
On Friday, the organizers of the opening ceremony took journalists on a 52-meter-high...
Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has dubbed the revoked licenses of the two tax warehouses of Lukoil "a test" for the ministers".
"Now we shall see if they were right in claiming that imported fuel is cheaper and the Burgas-based Neftochim refinery is not vital given that it fails to observe the law", Borisov said in a phone interview for the morning broadcast of private TV channel bTV.
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Simeon Djankov and Traicho Traikov, Minister of...
Russia has lifted the ban on vegetable imports from Bulgaria, which was imposed over the deadly E. coli outbreak, the consumer safety service announced.
All shipments, entering the country, will be let in if they are proven safe by a Bulgarian laboratory, Rospotrebnadzor agency said on its website.
Russia prohibited all fresh-vegetable imports from the 27- nation European Union on June 2 after the outbreak in May. It previously canceled the ban on vegetables from Belgium, Greece, Denmark,...
The Bulgarian parliament will debate at first reading on Thursday constitutional amendments, proposed by Finance Minister Simeon Djankov, which will pave the way for the introduction of the so-called Financial Stability Pact.
Upon submitting the draft constitutional amendments to parliament at the end of May, Minister Djankov said he hoped the Pact could be adopted by the fall of 2011.
The three main pillars of Djankov's Financial Stability Pact to be solidified via constitutional...
In July 2011, the total business climate indicator In Bulgaria increases by 0.7%, compared to its level from the previous month, the National Statistical Institute, NSI, has informed Thursday.
Improvement is observed in the industry, construction and retail trade sectors, while in the service sector there is deterioration. The long-term average level of the indicator is by 9.9% higher.
The composite indicator "business climate in industry" increases by 1.1 percentage points compared to...
Trips of Bulgarians abroad came in at 328.8 thousand in June 2011, registering a 3.8% increase on the year, according to the country's National Statistical Institute.
An upward trend was registered in the trips to the following destinations: Hungary - by 36.2%, Romania - by 26.1%, Ireland - by 22.1%, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) - by 20.1%, Austria - by 19.5%, Israel - by 18.4%, Belgium - by 7.3%, United Kingdom - by 6.6%, Germany - by 6.4%, Slovenia - by 6.1%, Turkey - by...
The Bulgarian city of Vratsa announced Tuesday the project of constructing a BGN 5.3 M recreational part in the Ledenika Cave.
The project is funded by the Regional Development Operational Programme within the framework of a strategy for developing tourist attractions in the region.
The recreational park will consist of separate thematic units, with light and music themes within the different halls of the cave.
Shows will include images projected in the cave lake, a volcano simulation,...
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