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...
Chimimport AD, a Bulgarian holding with over 50 subsidiaries, has registered a record profit for entire history.
Chimimport's 2010 profit amounted to BGN 91.8 M, a 1.5% increase year-on-year, according to company data.
Chimimport, which manages numerous finance, manufacturing, and transport companies – including Bulgaria Air, Central Cooperative Bank, Armeetz insurance company, grain trader Zarneni Hrani – saw its total 2010 revenues at BGN 141.6 M, a 15.6% growth year-on-year.
The...
Bulgaria's largest pharmaceutical company Sopharma has registered its highest profit in 11 years.
In 2010, Sopharma AD had a profit of BGN 40.5 M, according to newly released company data.
Sopharma's 2010 revenues amounted to BGN 238.5 M, which is a 12% increase year-on-year.
30% of Sopharma's sales in 2010 were on Bulgaria's domestic market but the major factor for its revenue growth was its export to foreign markets which grew 19% compared with 2009.
Sopharma's 2010 gross...
UK electric car company Zero Carbon 2020 will produce the first cars from a new assembly line in Bulgaria in the second or third quarter of 2011.
The assembly line will be near the southern city of Stara Zagora and will initially have the capacity of 100 cars; output is planned to expand to some 5,000 units by 2015.
The initial investment is estimated at BGN 6.5 M, and if the market reacts well, it is planned it would reach EUR 10-12 M.
"We are a company offering niche products and...
Bulgaria's production of natural gas in December 2010 compared to November 2010 increased by 48.1% to 40 million cubic meters, according to the country's National Statistical Institute.
The Bulgarian production of electricity grew by 18.7% to 4 650 GWh in the same period, the institute also revealed.
However, the country's production of solid fuels decreased by 15.5% to 2 752 thousand tonnes, liquefied petroleum gases by 35.7% to 9 thousand tonnes, unleaded motor gasoline by 14.9% to 131...
Candidates applying to buy VMZ Sopot, Bulgaria's largest but troubled military plant, will be eligible to bid for it if they demonstrate they have enough funds to cover its mounting debts.
The evidence of the bidders' assets can be accounting documentation and bank account statements.
Another provision outlined in the strategy for the privatization of VMZ Sopot published Friday in Bulgaria's State Gazette is that the future owner of the plant will not be allowed to lay off workers in the...
Bulgaria's only operational nuclear power units in the Kozloduy plant have registered their largest quarterly production of electricity in their history in January-March 2011.
Thus, in the first quarter of 2011, 1000-MW units 5 and 6 produced a total of 4,506,941 MWh of electricity, while obeying all safety rules, the Kozloduy NPP announced.
The 2011 Q1 production is a record for the two units since they were launched in 1988-1993.
Compared with the first quarter of 2010, units 5 and 6...
Bulgaria's capital Sofia will replace 100% of its electric buses (trolley buses) within a year, according to Deputy Mayor in charge of transport Lyubomir Hristov.
This means that the Sofia Municipality will buy 50 new electric buses by 2012, after it already replaced about 1/3 of the trolley buses in use with brand-new ones in the past year.
What is more, Hristov has announced that the municipality is going to build a new tram line going from the downtown to the Darvenitsa Quarter in the...
Bulgaria's State Commission for Energy and Water Regulation (DKEVR) has decided to increase the natural gas price for the second quarter of 2011 by 4.47%.
DKEVR's final decision coincides with its earlier proposal that the marginal cost for Q2 should be BGN 532.14 per 1000 cubic meters value-added tax (VAT) excluded.
According to the watchdog's head, Angel Semerdzhiev, the lack of other reserves made it impossible to have a smaller increase. He added that the hike will not affect the...
Bulgarian and Russian state companies have rushed for a last-ditch effort in the negotiations for the fate of the Belene nuclear power project on March 31, the day when their previous agreement expires.
Representatives of Bulgaria's National Electric Company NEK and Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom held talks behind closed doors, the NEK press service announced Thursday.
The last-minute negotiations continue late into the night on Thursday. They are expected to hammer out a new...
The space of offering in shopping malls in Bulgaria grew by 475% in 2010 year-on-year, according to a Cushman & Wakefield report announced by its local partner Forton International.
At the same time, the Cushman & Wakefield analysis points out that in 2010 the development of new commercial space centers in Europe saw its steepest decline since 1983.
Thus, Bulgaria is ranked in the top 5 in Europe on the amount of new commercial space in 2010 after Russia, Turkey, Poland, and Italy.
A...
US energy giant AES is going to launch its Bulgarian thermal power plant AES Galabovo by the end of April, after a delay of several months, but only with a part of its total capacity.
AES Galabovo, formerly Bulgaria's state-owned Maritsa East 1 TPP, is a 670-MW thermal plant in which AES has invested some EUR 1.3 B. AES Galabovo is of strategic importance for the Bulgarian economy; it is the first major power plant to be built in Bulgaria in the past 20 years.
Only 420 MW of the total...
Bulgaria can expects hundreds of thousands more Russian tourists than it welcomed in 2010 as the unrest in top Mediterranean destinations such as Tunisia and Egypt will redirect their summer holidays.
This is the forecast of RATA News, the daily online paper of the Russian Union of Tourism Industry in an article entitled "Bulgaria Awaited Its Moment in the Sun".
The paper cites Bulgarian tour operators as saying that the Russian tourists should not expect much in terms of special offers...
Sofia Municipality intends to start talks with Bulgaria's Economy Ministry in order to acquire the state minority stake in CEZ Electrorazpredelenie, the power utility supplying electricity to Sofia and Western Bulgaria.
The talks will be part of Sofia Municipality's latest brainchild to form a holding for communal services, announced Thursday Andrey Ivanov, chair of the Sofia City Council.
The potential Sofia Municipality communal holding would include the government 34% stake in CEZ as...
The privatization deal for Bulgaria's state cigarette-maker Bulgartabac will be completed in 3 weeks, according to a senior government official.
Emil Karanikolov, head of Bulgaria's Agency for Privatization and Post-Privatization Control told the Bulgarian National Radio Wednesday that the deal is close to being finalized.
"We can't say that the main thing in this privatization deal will be the price. If that was the case, I think that Bulgartabac would have been privatized a long time...
Bulgaria's Environment Ministry has given the Trans-Balkan Pipeline company two more months to complete its report on the environmental impact of the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline.
The environmental impact report of the propose Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline was tabled to the Bulgarian government in late February, and the Cabinet was supposed to make a decision on whether the pipeline will be built or not by March 31.
Speaking on Wednesday, however, Bulgarian Environment...
Bulgaria's hunting tourism is enjoying growing local and international interest, according to participants in the 17th annual "Nature, Hunting, Fishing" Expo in the city of Plovdiv.
A total of 3 992 foreign nationals and 3 761 Bulgarians had hunting tourism trips in Bulgaria in 2010, according to data of the State Forestry Agency, as cited by BTA.
The group hunt of wild pigs is the most sought after hunting tourism attraction in Bulgaria, the data indicates.
The foreign nationals who...
The supermarket chains "Piccadilly" and "Lidl" have opened new stores in the country, the companies announce.
The German "Lidl" entered for the first time the Black Sea city of Burgas by opening three stores at once and replacing the facilities of the "Plus" chain, which were purchased by Lidl.
Piccadilly opened its 5th supermarket in Sofia, replacing the "Elemag" store on "Kozyak" street. The company also has 10 smaller stores in the capital known as "Piccadilly Express."
"Lidl" now...
The Bulgarian government's decision to join the newly set-up European Stability Mechanism, the permanent euro zone bailout fund, has come under fierce criticism by respected local experts.
"Bulgaria will have to provide EUR 6.1 B in guarantees under the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) should the need for saving another defaulted eurozone member states arise after the scheme becomes operational as of 2013," Georgi Angelov, Senior Economist with the Open Society Institute – Sofia, argued...
The construction of the second line of the Sofia Metro is two months ahead of schedule, and will most likely be launched in June 2012, according to eager representatives of the Bulgarian authorities.
Bulgaria Prime Minister Boyko Borisov together with Sofia Mayor Yordanka Fandakova, Finance Minister Simeon Djankov, and EU Funds Minister Tomislav Donchev inspected Monday the construction of the metro at the Lavov Most ("Lions' Bridge") station with much fanfare; the section in question is...
Bulgaria's Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has surprised the media and the public by announcing a new idea for the location of a new national stadium to replace the Vasil Levski Stadium in downtown Sofia.
According to Borisov, the latest idea for a new location is the Nadezhda ("Hope") quarter in the northern suburbs of the capital, near or on the spot of the currently existing stadium of FC Lokomotiv Sofia.
"We are now considering the options for Nadezhda, even for the Lokomotiv stadium, to...