State-owned gas supplier Bulgargaz has requested a 15.73% price increase from July 1, according to a media statement published on the company's website on Monday.
Bulgargaz bases its demand on the higher US dollar value and on the unfulfilled circumstances provided in the report of the State Commission for Energy and Water Regulation (DKEVR) on gas prices from April 1.
The company further highlights the need to inject some 148.5 million cubic meters of gas into the Chiren underground...
Bulgaria's best swimmer Petar Stoychev earned a berth to London 2012 with a bronze medal finish Sunday in the men's 10-kilometre race at the FINA Olympic Marathon Swimming qualifier.
Tunisia's Oussama Mellouli won the gold medal in one hour 45 minutes 18.5 seconds. Canadian Richard Weinberger followed in 1:45:30.2 and Petar Stoychev was third in 1:45:34.1.
This will be the second time that Petar Stoychev will compete in the Olympic marathon swimming. In the previous games in Beijing in...
Sofia Airport will launch a new cargo service in May, operating the Sofia-Belgrade-Prague route.
Czech Airlines will run the cargo flights twice weekly, on Wednesday and Friday,
The cargo flights- will be executed twice weekly, on Wednesday and Friday, on an АTR72 freighter.
In May, Sofia Airport registered the highest amount of freight and postal shipments processed since the beginning of 2012, at 1441 tons, up by 6.2% from May 2011.
There was a significant 28% increase in...
The consumer price index (CPI) in Bulgaria in May 2012, compared to April 2012, was 99.9%, i.e. the monthly inflation was -0.1%.
The data was reported Tuesday by the Bulgarian National Statistical Institute (NSI).
The inflation rate since the beginning of the year (May 2012 compared to December 2011) has been 1.6% and the annual inflation in May 2012 compared to May 2011 was 1.7%.
The annual average inflation, measured by CPI, in the last 12 months (June 2011 – May 2012) compared to...
Bulgaria expects a 5% to 8% increase of foreign tourists during summer season 2012, according to the Minister of Economy, Energy and Tourism, Delyan Dobrev.
Dobrev attended Sunday the official opening of the season at Bulgaria's largest beach resort "Sunny Beach."
The Minister noted that the Russian market in particular is developing very well and there is an expected 15% to 20% increase from there, reminding that on Monday the 100 000th Bulgarian visa was issued to a Russian...
Bulgaria's Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Simeon Djankov, has promised additional funding from Budget 2013 for municipalities with a stable fiscal state.
The news was announced by Djankov during his visit of the Danube city of Silistra, explaining that there will be a ban to use the said additional funding for salary increases or bonuses.
The financial state of all Bulgarian municipalities will be published by the end of June, according to the Minister.
He traveled to...
Bulgaria's government has offered the European Union to change the principle of determining fuel excise duty, according to Energy and Economy Minister Delyan Dobrev.
Dobrev said Friday that Bulgaria had made two proposals: for determining the excise tax rate on fuel on the basis of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), setting a minimum excise rate at a certain GDP, or calculating the excise duty rate on the basis of purchasing power of the population.
Bulgaria's Energy Minister...
Bulgaria has completed the rehabilitation of its key southern railway linking the cities of Plovdiv and Burgas at about 35%, the Transport Ministry announced Friday night.
In May 2011, the Bulgarian government formally started the project for the rehabilitation of the southern rail highway between Plovdiv and Burgas, a major and long-anticipated infrastructure project, whose total length is 292 km.
Thus, trains will be able to reach a speed of 160 km/h in the rehabilitated railway...
Bulgaria's parliament ratified on Friday the contracts with BNP Paribas, HSBC and Raiffeisen as mediators for the eurobond issue that the country plans to float this year.
The motion, tabled by the government, was approved by 101 members of parliament, 34 voted against, while 12 abstained.
Bulgaria plans to tap international markets to raise funds to repay the first tranche of about EUR 835 M (USD 1.07 B) in 11-year eurobonds maturing on January 15, 2013.
The bonds offered on...
Bulgaria's capital Sofia will have its first operational overpass road junction in July 2012, Sofia Mayor Yordanka Fandakova promised.
The Sofia Municipality has launched the construction of a third overpass that is supposed to help relieve the tough street traffic situation in the city.
Fandakova referred to the overpass located on the crossing of the Andrey Sakharov Blvd and the Alexander Malinov Blvd in the Mladost quarter, which was in fact supposed to be completed by May 2012.
It...
According to flash data about revenues as of beginning of May 2012, Bulgaria's State budget is balanced for the first time since June 2009.
The information was reported Friday in the Parliament by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Simeon Djankov.
He stressed that his ruling center-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party, GERB, began its term with a legacy of huge deficit, left by his predecessor in the Cabinet of the Three-Way Coalition, and two years were...
Bulgaria ranks second among the European Union Member States by the production of electric energy with a 7.5% increase.
The number one spot is taken by Greece with 12.2%. Poland (3.1%), Slovakia (2.3%) and the Czech Republic (2%) also register an increase.
Bulgaria's gross production of electricity in April 2012 is 3 560 GWh, while the net one is 3 231, according to data from the National Statistics Institute, NSI. Import of electricity in April is about 100 GWh, while export - 800...
Bulgaria's seasonally adjusted industrial production index increased by 1.5% in April 2012 as compared to the previous month, according to the country's National Statistical Institute.
On a yearly basis, April's working day-adjusted industrial production index increased by just 0.3%, according to the institute's data.
The most significant monthly increases were seen in the production of basic metals (by 56.0%) and electrical equipment (by 9.2%)
The most significant monthly decrease was...
Bulgaria's government has selected BNP Paribas, HSBC and Raiffeisen as mediators for the eurobond issue that the country plans to float this year.
This becomes clear from a bill for ratifying the contracts with the three banks that the cabinet has tabled to Bulgaria's parliament, thus confirming earlier media reports.
BNP Paribas, HSBC and Raiffeisen will be appointed to advise the Bulgarian state as well as manage the sale of the bond.
The authorities evaluated bids submitted by 17...
Bulgaria's Gross Domestic Product, GDP, was BGN 15.7 M or EUR 8.8 M in the first quarter of 2012 at current prices.
The GDP growth rate in the first quarter of 2012 was 0.5% compared with the same quarter of the previous year and remains at the same level compared with the fourth quarter of 2011.
The official quarterly estimates of GDP for the first quarter of 2012 were released Tuesday by the Bulgarian National Statistics Institute, NSI.
According to the preliminary data, the GDP at...
Sofia public transportation buses serving line 111 now have free wireless internet.
The service has been launched on Monday, June 4. The buses are equipped with wireless routers of the Vivacom telecom.
The news was reported by the Deputy Mayor of Sofia, Lyubomir Hristov.
He says the 111 line is a pilot project and if it is proven successful, other bus lines will be equipped with wireless routers.
The project is part of the initiative to support Sofia's bid as European Culture...
The construction of the South Stream gas pipeline will begin by the end of 2012, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Monday.
Putin has reminded that the project has received additional support, as it has been backed by Turkey.
"Turkey approved the passing through of the pipeline through its exclusive economic zone," he said, as cited by ITAR-TASS.
The project is expected to become operational by the end of 2015.
The South Stream pipeline is intended to transport up to 63...
Since the beginning of 2012, Bulgaria has awarded five "Class A" investor certificates for investments of over EUR 225 M, compared to three first-class investor certificates for the entire 2011, according to Economy and Energy Minister Delyan Dobrev.
On Wednesday, Dobrev awarded a"Class A" investor certificate to Swiss company Reichle & De-Massari, which is to invest BGN 9.7 M into a new Sofia-based factory specialized in the manufacturing and assembly of fiber-optic components.
The...
Bulgaria has offered to Rosatom to participate in the construction of Unit 7 of Bulgaria's Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant, NPP.
The news was announced by the Deputy CEO of Rosatom, Kiril Komarov, speaking at the international "Atom Expo 2012" forum, and cited by Russia's RIA-Novosti and the Bulgarian Standard daily.
"The Bulgarian side proposed to examine our inclusion in the construction of Unit 7 of Kozloduy NPP. I believe that despite Bulgaria abandoning the Belene NPP project, our...
The northeastern Bulgarian city of Dobrich has become the second location in Bulgaria to open an electric vehicle charging station outside of the capital Sofia.
Dobrich has thus become the first provincial city in Bulgaria to have a charger for electric vehicles.
The electric vehicle charging station in Dobrich has been built as a private investment of FullCharger Bulgaria in cooperation with Atanasov Group EOOD, a chain of gas stations.
The two companies have decided to put up a total...
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