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...
The Bulgarian company "Kabinata" ("The Cabin") owner of the Kabinata.com website, has been selected as one of infoDev's top 50 innovative, technology-led small to medium enterprises.
The educational website has developed its own technology called the "Virtual Classroom". It facilitates teaching, sharing audio – and visual information and presentations.
"Thanks to this technology, we succeeded in training 17 000 Bulgarian teachers, or 12% of all teachers in Bulgaria, in 5 months in...
Bulgaria’s Finance Ministry has unveiled a set of moderately optimistic projections for the financial and economic development of the country in 2011, and in the 2012-2014 period.
Thus, the government expects a gradual decrease of the unemployment rate to start in the second half of the year, with 2011 bringing a stabilization of the labor market after the negative developments in 2009 and 2010 caused by the economic crisis.
The average 2011 unemployment rate is expected to be 10%, and...
A number of Italian companies have declared readiness to invest in the development of Bulgaria's renewable energy sector at a round table organized by Confindustria Bulgaria.
Confindustria Bulgaria, the association of Italian businesses working in the country, brought together key Bulgarian government figures and potential investors to explore the possibilities of Bulgaria's renewable energy sector. The event was organized in collaboration with Ice Sofia and with the support of Unicredit...
Bulgaria's competition watchdog said it has given the green light to the acquisition of WAZ Mediengruppe assets in Bulgaria by Ognyan Donev and Lyubomir Pavlov, who were recently accused of an attempted corporate mini-coup.
The ruling cements the decision of Bulgaria's Business Registry Agency to register 83% of the wide-circulation dailies "Trud" (Labor) and 24 Chasa (24 Hours) as property of Ognyan Donev, chairman and majority owner of Sopharma, the biggest Bulgarian generic drugmaker, and...
Bulgaria registered a miniature budget surplus in March after substantial deficits in the first two months of the year, according to preliminary data of the Finance Ministry.
Thus, in March 2011, the monthly balance of the Consolidated Fiscal Program of the government showed a surplus of BGN 8.6 M.
This result comes as a marked improvement after Bulgaria registered a deficit of BGN 750 M on cash basis in the first two months of 2011, or BGN 100 M more than Finance Minister Simeon...
The publisher of the two wide-circulation Bulgarian dailies - Trud and 24 Hours - is set to become a public company as its shares will be listed on the country's stock exchange in the short term, the new owners have confirmed.
"We are very close to an initial public offering," Ognyan Donev, chairman and majority owner of Sopharma, the biggest Bulgarian generic drugmaker, who now holds a 40% stake in Media Group Bulgaria, told journalists and investors on Monday.
The statement came right...
Bulgaria's largest mattress producer TED-BED Jsc has registered impressive results on the European markets, and has directed its attention towards new export destinations such as South Korea and Taiwan.
In the first quarter of 2011, TED-BED registered a 150%-growth of export sales compared with the same period of 2010, while its production capacity has tripled.
"These results show that we are solidifying our positions, and are headed in the right direction. Our greatest challenge is to...
Bulgaria's government has assured fiscal indicators look good in terms of euro-adoption criteria, although entry into the euro zone is no longer dubbed top priority.
"Our indicators look good in terms of the euro-adoption criteria," Deputy Finance Minister Boryana Pencheva said in an interview for Bloomberg agency.
According to her efforts to adopt the euro will get a boost from joining Europe's Competitiveness Pact.
"The program ensures we work toward meeting all of the technical...
Irish low-cost company Ryanair plans to open flights from Spain to Plovdiv in Bulgaria in the autumn of this year at the latest.
"Even though the company recently dropped plans for a line from the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv to Barcelona, Spain, a service between the two countries will be launched as early as this year," Doychin Anguelov, executive director of Plovdiv Airport, told business news provider Investor.bg.
"Tickets for the flights were on sale since December 2010 and demand was...
Bulgaria's largest pharmaceutical producer Sopharma, which registered record profit in 2010, plans to boost its presence in key Eastern European markets.
Sopharma owner and CEO Ognyan Donev has made clear his expectations that Sopharma will expand its business operations in the Baltic states, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Serbia, and Turkey, and will be watching closely the market situation in Greece.
"My dream is to see Sopharma develop as successfully as it has in the past two years," Donev...
The Spanish FCC company, building contractor of Danube Bridge II between the Bulgarian port Vidin and the Romanian Calafat, has received a concession to extract construction materials.
The information was reported by the company's press center, cited by the Bulgarian daily "Standart."
The decision has been made during the last cabinet meeting.
The concession has a 5-year term and allows the extraction of 432 000 tons.
FCC have been asking for permission to extract materials from...
The Lebanese company Oger Telecom will take over Bulgarian Vivacom within a month, according to unconfirmed reports.
Oger is owned by elite Lebanese family Hariri, which has included two PMs of Lebanon, Rafik and Saad, the first of whom founded the company.
Oger is directed by his older brother Mohammed Hariri, who has embarked on a project for expansion in Europe.
On Saturday, the Trud paper reported that Oger Telecom is expected to buy 25% of Vivacom, in addition to taking over its...
Bulgaria's anti-trust commission has fined two fuel distributors over their failure to cooperate in a probe into an alleged fuel price cartel that was launched amidst drivers' protests last month.
Litex AD has been slapped a fine of BGN 12 343 and Petrol AD - BGN 12 000.
The sanctions represent a percentage of the total turnover of the companies for 2009, the Bulgarian Commission on Protection of Competition (CPC) said.
Litex AD and Petrol AD were required to supply information to the...
After a substantial contraction for two years, Bulgaria's construction sector will start growing again in 2011, according to the "Bulgaria Infrastructure Report Q2 2011" Report by Research and Markets.
"We anticipate a moderate construction market recovery in Bulgaria over the period 2011-2015, after two years of contraction generated by the global economic downturn. The private sector should drive this recovery in the country's construction market, amid a wider economic upturn and fiscal...
The mayor of Bulgarian city of Burgas Dimitar Nikolov has spoken out against Turkish possible plans to build a NPP nearby the Bulgarian border on the Black Sea.
Turkey is currently researching the appropriate site to build its first NPP, with the third best site currently considered being nearby the town of Igneada, some 5 km of the Bulgarian border and the village of Rezovo on the Black Sea.
"We will be seaking all diplomatic means possible to dissuade our neighbors from building the NPP...
Bulgaria's state budget made almost BGN 16.8 M from the concessions of port and airport terminals in 2009, according to final reports of Bulgarian institutions, the government announced Wednesday.
The final 2009 figures confirm earlier statistics; in February, the Bulgarian Transport Ministry revealed preliminary figures showing that the government got BGN 16.7 M from port and airport concessions in 2010, a slight decrease year-on-year.
The facilities on concession in 2009 were the...
Sofia will soon have a brand-new bicycle path, connecting the "Mladost 4" district with the last metro stop in "Mladost 1," the Mayor of Sofia, Yordanka Fandakova, announced Thursday.
The 8-mk long path will be opened on May 24, 2011.
The Sofia City Hall is planning to also build, in the very near future, two more such paths – on "Gotse Delchev" boulevard, connecting South Park with the already existing path on "Tsar Boris III" boulevard and another one – on "Evlogi and Hristo...
Gabrovo, located in the north-central part of the country, is Bulgaria's best city for doing business, showed a ranking compiled by the Sofia-based Institute for Market Economics (IME).
Ruse on the Danube and Sliven in the south are the other two cities that make it into the top three. The three least business-friendly cities are Vidin and Silistra, two other Danube cities, and southernmost Kardzhali.
The "Local Business Conditions 2011" survey is published for a second year and aims to...
Accor, a leading global hotel operator and market leader in Europe, has started a new project in Bulgaria in partnership with the Bulgarian investment company MHQ.
Accor's Bulgarian partnership was unveiled Thursday at a news briefing by Antoine Guego, Chief Operations Director of Accord for Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria and the Balkans together Borislav Spasov, Managing Director of MHQ Ltd, and Andrew Peirson from King Sturge, French Ambassador to Bulgaria Philippe Autie, and Philippe...
The Eltrade Company has wired to the Bulgarian Bank for Development, BBD, the amount of BGN 284 399 500 for the purchase of the bankrupt Kremikovtzi steel mill, located near the Bulgarian capital.
The news was reported Thursday evening by the Bulgarian news agency BTA, citing the mill's receiver, Tsvetan Bankov.
The transfer had a deadline of April 18. It is the full price of Kremikovtzi, which was sold for BGN 316 M, because the company had deducted the deposit of BGN 31 600 500, made to...
Bulgaria Translation