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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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 number of millionaires in Bulgaria has skyrocketed over the past year, according to data provided by National Revenue Agency (NRA) head Krasimir Stefanov.
A total of 1673 Bulgarians have declared taxable incomes of over BGN 1 M for 2010, which constitutes a 60-fold year-on-year increase, Bulgarian daily 24 Hours has revealed.
22 of the wealthiest Bulgarians have reported incomes exceeding BGN 10 M.
Experts have attributed the millionaire boom to the fact that the economic downturn...
The Bulgarian Transport Ministry is reinstating the popular sea shuttles known as comets servicing the country's beach resorts and coastal cities.
The decision comes after a 20-year break, the Bulgarian TV channel bTV reports Sunday. The initial launch was scheduled for June 1, but the repair of the shuttles, which were purchased second hand from neighboring Greece, took longer than expected – three months.
The regular lines between the southern coastal towns of Sozopol and Nessebar and...
Prices of fruit and vegetables are falling traditionally for this time of the year with their wholesale price index going down to 1.9 points.
The data was released by the State Commission for Commodity Exchanges and Market Places.
Prices of greenhouse tomatoes are down 12.3% to BGN 0.93 per kg, of cucumbers – 6% to BGN 0.9 per kg, of green peppers – by 27%. Cabbage prices remain the same; those of potatoes are down 6% to BGN 0.5 per kg; squash prices are down 7% to BGN 0.4 per...
Moody's recent upgrade of Bulgaria's debt is the first step towards distinguishing it clearly from the troubled countries in the region, a local expert argues.
"This is the beginning of a process of differentiation, which - if brought to an end through sound economic policies - can restore investors' confidence in Bulgaria despite the problems of the other countries in the region," Georgi Angelov, Senior Economist with the Open Society Institute – Sofia, has commented.
"In 2009 Estonia...
Bulgaria's anti-monopoly body has given the green light to the acquisition of a shopping mall in the capital Sofia by London-based property fund manager Europa Capital, part of US real estate investor Rockefeller Group International.
The Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) approved on Friday the deal for the sale of Mall of Sofia to Dorado 1, which is controlled by Europa Capital, the regulatory body announced.
The deal was financed by Hungary's OTP and its Bulgarian unit...
An increase in the number of Russian tourists has been registered in Bulgaria over the last two years, according to Marin Neshkov, chair of the tourist chamber of the country's Black Sea capital Varna, has said.
Besides Russians, tourists from Germany and the UK constitute major parts from the Balkan country's tourist market, Neshkov has said, as cited by actualno.com.
Bulgaria has already achieved its highest possible market share in Germany, the Nordic countries and the UK and could...
Bulgaria's dwelling prices have decreased by 6.4% year on year during the second quarter of 2011, according to the country's National Statistical Institute.
The dwelling prices have dropped with 1.6% in comparison with the year's first quarter. According to the statistical institute, the average price for a dwelling has been BGN 908.98 per square meter.
Dwellings have been most expensive in the Black Sea capital Varna, with an average of BGN 1 508.67 per square meter, followed by Sofia...
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