The Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) has revised upwards its forecasts for growth of the Bulgarian economy and inflation in the coming years, stating that the Bulgarian economy will grow by 2.9 percent this year, and growth of 2.7 percent is expected in 2026. This represents an increase compared to the interim forecast of 0.1 percentage points and 0.5 percentage points for this and next year, respectively. For comparison, in the previous forecast, current as of March 26, the BNB expected GDP growth of 2.8 percent for 2025 and 2.2 percent for 2026. However, the central bank is lowering its expectations for GDP growth in 2027 from 3.1 percent to 2.7 percent, or a downward revision of 0.4 percentage points.

Bulgaria's long-term foreign currency credit rating has been upgraded to "BBB+" with a stable outlook. The assessment is by international rating agencies Fitch and S&P Global. In the justification for the rating action, S&P Global Ratings notes that Bulgaria will benefit from the ECB's sound monetary policy and the developed capital markets of the monetary union, and currency risk will decrease significantly. It believes that Bulgaria's membership in the EU and the upcoming accession to the eurozone continue to ensure the country's implementation of important policies. Bulgaria's short-term growth prospects are assessed as stable. The forecast is that the economy will grow by 2.4% in real terms in 2025 and by 2.8% on average by 2028. Private consumption will be the main driver of growth, supported by high growth in real wages due to the "tight" labor market. Fitch expects real GDP growth of 2.8% in 2025, unchanged from 2024, as uncertainty around global trade is offset by improved domestic political conditions. Strong nominal wage growth, combined with a pick-up in consumption ahead of eurozone entry, will support robust household spending. Fitch Ratings forecasts real GDP growth of 2.5% in 2026, with room for further upside related to euro adoption.

A state-owned property located in the western industrial zone of Silistra has been included in the indicative list of properties with no longer needed and may soon be acquired by a new owner. More than 50 properties from Silistra are included in the list for sale, which is published on the website of the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works. One of these properties is the “Pelican” Recreation Center. The plot is 16 acres in size and contains 7 buildings. They are described in the list as 2 massive and four stilted buildings. The terrain previously housed the “Sava Dobroplodni” District Auxiliary School, which existed during the period 1963-1997. The property is now owned by the Ministry of Education and Science and is managed through the public enterprise “Student Recreation and Sports” EAD. The company was established by virtue of the Council of Ministers in 2004. The sole owner of the capital of "Student Recreation and Sports" EAD is the state. When establishing its capital, a total of 165 state recreation centers located throughout the country were contributed. Of these, only 26 are operational. According to the approved program of the Council of Ministers, the privatization list may also include state properties contributed to public companies. The base in the industrial zone of Silistra is one of the 108 non-operational bases on the company's list. Contrary to what is written in the list of the MRDPW, almost all the buildings on the terrain are massive, although unmaintained. One of the buildings is large - 3-story, but the others are also massive, although unmaintained. The abandoned property falls into the center of the plots that the Municipality of Silistra recently acquired from the local agricultural high school "Dobrudzha" to build an industrial park. Decisions were also made by the municipal council to change the purpose of the land from agricultural to industrial, in order to increase the price of the acquired plots, which will be contributed to the future municipal enterprise "Industrial Park". Thus, the property of the "Pelican" recreation center can become attractive and prioritized for sale through the auctions that the state is about to organize and be acquired by a private investor - and turn out to be private, but surrounded by the properties of the industrial park, which are municipal property. In addition to the base in the industrial zone of Silistra, "Student Recreation and Sport" EAD also offers for sale its bases in the village of Aydemir and the village of Malak Preslavets - "Koru Kulak" locality. mestenreporter.com

"Zapryanovi-03" does not give up on the construction of a quarry for the extraction of marble and ballast near Gornoslav. The company has filed an appeal with the Administrative Court-Plovdiv against the decision of the Municipal Council-Assenovgrad, by which the councilors refused to approve the technical terms of reference for the development of a PUP-PR for the quarry in the concession area "Delchevo-2". A little over 45 decares out of a total of 65 of the future quarry fall into state territory with a use method - another type of wood-producing forest. In order to allow the development of a PUP - Regulation Plan in a forest territory, prior coordination by the Minister of Agriculture and Food or an official designated by him is required. The area in which blasting activities will be carried out is 1.2 km from the center of Gornoslav, no hydrogeological analysis of the territory and no public discussion have been conducted. The manager of "Zapryanovi-03" Ltd. Georgi Zapryanov explained that the preparation of the PUP - PR and the EIA case are two different legal procedures and there is no conflict between them. The company began work on the concession in 2012, with the contract for 35 years. Zapryanov pointed out that all court decisions on complaints against it are in their favor and everything is legal.

Intuitive, a global leader in robotic and minimally invasive surgery, has officially opened a new manufacturing facility in Parvomay, part of its planned expansion in Europe. The new facility in the Plovdiv region will produce 3D endoscopes and micro-optical components for the da Vinci systems - a robotic surgical platform used by nearly 90,000 surgeons worldwide. This is the company's first facility in Bulgaria and the third in Europe, after Germany. According to data from the 2022 investment proposal, the investment amounts to 42 million euros. The building covers over 17,000 sq. m of office and production space, located in two buildings. The facility already has over 110 employees, with the possibility of expanding to 300 people. The Bulgarian company of the global leader was registered in February 2022 under the name "Intuitive Surgical Bulgaria" EOOD with a capital of 113,494,500 leva. It is 100% owned by the Swiss company Intuitive Surgical Sarl, which in turn is owned by the American company Intuitive Surgical Inc. It ranks among the largest companies on the US stock exchange with a current market capitalization of $188 billion. The base in Parvomay ranks next to locations such as Emmendingen in Germany and Mexicali in Mexico, where the company has production.

Bulgartransgaz has chosen United Bulgarian Bank (UBB) to finance the construction of the Vertical Gas Corridor with 100 million euros (about 200 million leva). The gas transmission operator was looking for a financial resource in the amount of 200 million leva with a repayment period of 5 years, and for this purpose it opened the procedure nearly a month ago, and offers were submitted until July 4. The bank has offered an annual interest rate on the loan of less than 2%. A contract is to be concluded between Bulgartransgaz and UBB, after which it should conclude a guarantee agreement with the Ministry of Finance. The loan will be secured by a state guarantee, which was approved by the Council of Ministers last July and has a total amount of 625 million leva, which will be used only for the new gas route. Offers to provide the company with a loan have been submitted by established financial institutions, including some of the largest banks in Europe and the world – Bank of America, DSK Bank, Commercial Bank D, Bulgarian Development Bank, UniCredit Bulbank, United Bulgarian Bank, Investbank, ING Bank N.V. – Sofia branch, Municipal Bank. The total amount of the proposed resource in all submitted offers is nearly 8 times more than the requested amount and amounts to EUR 781.8 million. The vertical corridor is an initiative of the gas transmission operators of Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Ukraine and Moldova. Its goal is to improve the security and diversification of the sources and routes for the transmission of additional quantities of natural gas from south to north.

Gabriela Popova – owner and manager of the brewery "Britos" EOOD, is the first woman elected as a member of the Board of Directors of the Brewers of Europe. The organization was founded in 1958 and today unites the national associations of beer producers from all EU countries, Great Britain, Norway and Switzerland. In her new role, she represents the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, and continues to be a member of the Board of the Brewers' Union in Bulgaria since 2014. At the same time as this prestigious international position, Gabriela Popova has been managing the brewing company "Britos" in Veliko Tarnovo for 13 years.

Canadian company Dundee Precious Metals (DPM) reported that it produced 26,600 ounces of gold from its Bulgarian Ada Tepe mine in the first half of 2025. And in the second quarter alone, the output was 14,100 ounces of gold. The Canadian company’s other Bulgarian mine – Chelopech – produced about 84,400 ounces of gold and 12.3 million pounds of copper in the period January-June. In the second quarter alone, Chelopech produced about 47,000 ounces of gold and 6.4 million pounds of copper. Gold production at Chelopech is in line with forecasts, while copper production is slightly below plan due to lower copper concentration levels, reflecting changes in the mining sequence.

The Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) is initiating an investigation into the restriction of competition in connection with the online service of the Sofia Municipality for changing address registration following a report from Information Services AD. The report has also been sent to the Mayor of Sofia Municipality Vasil Terziev and the Minister of e-Government Valentin Mundrov. Information Services AD states that access to the e-service is possible only through a qualified electronic signature issued by one specific provider, while the providers of qualified certification services listed by the Communications Regulation Commission in the national trusted list are a total of five companies.

Plot of 111 decares with a newly built 4.9 MWp photovoltaic plant (56 decares) and an adjacent free plot (55 decares) with development potential at a key location in the city of Blagoevgrad

Britain is facing a sharp rise in the cost of servicing its public debt, with one of the main reasons being that the country's pension funds are buying fewer government bonds - threatening to worsen the already fragile outlook for public finances, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said in a report. The rapid rise in the debt burden is also linked to an ageing population, leading to higher healthcare and pension costs - while climate and geopolitical risks are increasing. Reduced demand for government bonds from British pension funds will make the country even more dependent on foreign investors. Britain's national debt is already approaching 100% of gross domestic product (GDP) - a level last seen in the early 1960s. Without appropriate government action, the debt will exceed 270% of GDP within 50 years, the OBR predicts. With the Bank of England ending its quantitative easing (QE) bond purchases, the change in pension fund policy leaves the government reliant on foreign investors. The change in pension funds’ investment policy means their share of government bonds will fall from 29.5% of GDP in 2024-25 to just 10.9% in the early 2070s, the OBR said in a report. This is because their portfolios now contain a more diverse mix of global stocks and bonds. Keeping Britain’s government debt at around 100% of GDP would raise key interest rates by 0.8 percentage points, leading to a £22 billion ($29.9 billion) increase in spending, the OBR predicted. The Office for Budget Responsibility also warned of rising pension costs due to changing demographics. Pension spending is expected to rise from the current 5% of GDP to 7.7% by the early 2070s. Higher life expectancy and lower birth rates mean that the UK will have to spend a larger share of its GDP on pensions. Combined with rising healthcare costs, this could lead to new borrowing and national debt reaching 270% of GDP by the early 2070s.

U.S. customs duty collections topped $100 billion for the first time in a fiscal year, the Treasury Department said. The record revenue was the result of President Donald Trump's increased enforcement of his tariffs, which have become a growing source of revenue, Reuters reported. Customs duty revenue hit a new all-time high of $27.2 billion gross and $26.6 billion net in June, bringing total revenue for the first nine months of fiscal 2025 to $113.3 billion gross and $108 billion net. That's nearly double the year-ago period.

Donald Trump's latest trade moves risk creating a "tariff wall" around Southeast Asian manufacturing hubs, leading to higher prices and tough choices for US consumers and industry, analysts have warned. The US president has threatened Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia and Thailand with tariffs of 25 to 40 per cent in an apparent last-ditch bid to force them to the negotiating table before a new deadline of 1 August, the Financial Times reported. Last week, Trump announced that Vietnam, the biggest destination for "diverted" Chinese goods, had agreed to a 20 per cent tariff on its exports to the US, rising to 40 per cent for goods that have been "overloaded". The US administration expects its trade policies to generate more than $300 billion in revenue by the end of the year, with Trump saying on Wednesday that "the big money will start coming in on 1 August". In 2024 ASEAN has had trade turnover with the United States of $555 billion and $968 billion with China, but some of the countries in the alliance have territorial disputes with Beijing, which has led them to seek closer relations with Washington.