In Budget 2026, they are trying to preserve all the benefits that some layers and groups of budget support have. On the revenue side, social security contributions will be raised starting next year, which makes no economic sense and would be a big mistake. This was said by Lyubomir Datsov, a member of the Fiscal Council and former Deputy Minister of Finance. The claim that we have low taxes in Bulgaria is a fallacy. And if social security contributions are increased, Bulgaria will enter the top seven countries with the highest social security contributions within the European Union. Their increase also raises the cost of labor, and this will to some extent also affect inflation, “because consumption continues to be pumped up.” According to Datsov, the level of employed people on budget support is nearly 20% higher than 20 years ago. Measures aimed at increasing direct taxes affect economic activity and “instead of stimulating investments, they will be reduced.”

In September, 3,818 new passenger cars were registered in Bulgaria, which is almost 51.6% more than last year. Our market has the highest growth for the month in the entire EU. This is according to data from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA). Since the beginning of the year, 36,216 new passenger cars have been placed in Bulgaria, or 11.8% more. During the first nine months of the year, 1,673 new fully electric cars (+54.6%), 435 plug-in hybrids (PHEV) (+20.5%), 1,209 hybrids (+67.7%), 30,089 gasoline (+10.8%) and 2,735 diesel cars (-9.2%) have been registered in Bulgaria. Since the beginning of the year, registrations of new cars in the EU have increased by 0.9% compared to the same period last year, marking the third consecutive month of growth. This small boost is partly driven by new model launches, with a strong 10% increase in September alone, ACEA said. The market share of battery electric vehicles has remained stable at 16.1% since the start of the year, still below the pace needed at this stage of the transition.

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

German arms giant Rheinmetall will start production in Bulgaria after signing a contract with the state-owned VMZ to build a gunpowder and ammunition plant in the country. The two companies will create a joint venture in which they will invest nearly 1 billion euros. The contract was signed by Rheinmetall CEO Armin Paperger and the director of the group's "Arms and Ammunition" department Roman Köhne - on the German side, and by VMZ CEO Ivan Getsov - on the Bulgarian side. It envisages the creation of a joint venture in which Rheinmetall will hold 51% and VMZ - the remaining 49%. Bulgaria plans to finance its participation with funds from the European Defense Capabilities Credit Facility SAFE. The plant will produce gunpowder and 155-mm artillery shells and modular charging systems. The weapons plant is planned to be built in 14 months and will create over 1,000 new jobs. Now the next steps will be organizational - registration of the joint company, selection and licensing of a site, design, construction of infrastructure, etc. Rheinmetall is the largest German arms company. For 2024, its revenues reach 9.8 billion euros, which is almost double the reported 5.7 billion euros in 2021, before the war in Ukraine began. Its best-selling products are the 155-mm artillery ammunition that Ukrainian forces use and which will also be produced in Bulgaria. The company is publicly traded, with shareholders being mainly institutional investors. Its market capitalization is about 80 billion euros. VMZ is the largest state-owned arms company, which has also been growing rapidly in recent years, reporting 976.8 million leva in revenues for 2024. The main production base is in Sopot, but it also has sites in other places. Nearly 5,000 people are employed.

Russian group Lukoil announced that it intends to sell its international assets "due to the introduction of restrictive measures against the company and its subsidiaries by some countries." The announcement was published on the concern's website. Consideration of offers from potential buyers has begun, the company added. The sale of the assets is being carried out under a license to terminate the activity issued by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Treasury Department. If necessary, the company plans to apply for an extension of the license to ensure the continuous operation of its international assets, the announcement added. The US imposed sanctions on the two largest Russian oil companies Rosneft and Lukoil because of the war in Ukraine last week.

The Central Bank of San Marino has refused to authorize the purchase of a majority stake in the Bank of San Marino (Banca di San Marino) by an investor including Bulgarian businessman Assen Hristov and his company Starcom Holding. The decision was made after an investigation that lasted several months. The refusal, issued in late October, coincided with a disagreement on the seller's board and the arrests of three people in an investigation into a bribery case related to the proposed sale, amounting to 1 million euros. Banca di San Marino is one of the oldest financial institutions in the small country of San Marino, whose territories are surrounded on all sides by Italy. The bank was founded in 1920 as a cooperative of investors from San Marino and is owned by Ente Cassa di Faetano, the bank's foundation. The idea of ​​attracting a foreign investor to develop the bank's positions on the European market has been discussed for years, but there is also strong resistance and concern among the local community about allowing an external player into the key institution for the country's financial system. Officially, the purchase of the majority stake in Banca di San Marino was to be made through the company San Marino Group S.p.A., in which, according to local media, the president and majority shareholder is Assen Hristov and in whose ownership the Bulgarian holding "Starcom" - the main shareholder in "Eurohold" and through it - in "Euroins" - also participates. The contract for the purchase of 51% of the capital of Banca di San Marino was signed on May 15 this year, and the price of the deal was 36.7 million euros (base price of 16.7 million euros and a subsequent capital increase of 20 million euros). Starcom specified that they had planned to financially support the investment of the "private external investor" and had participated with just under 10% in the capital of the investor company itself, but had given up due to a disagreement that had arisen within the seller's circle.

Glavbolgarstroy is carrying out construction activities on Lot 1 and Lot 3 of the energy project for the construction of the Vertical Gas Corridor in parallel. Along the Lot 3 route, 50 km of the construction strip have currently been cleared, pipes have been laid along 10 km of it, and the first of a total of 20 trenchless crossings of roads and railways has been completed. Key engineering intersections are ahead - under three rivers, the Hemus motorway and the Balkan Mountains, which will be implemented through horizontal directional drilling. Activities on the 48-km route of Lot 1 "Kulata - Kresna" are also at an advanced stage - the pipes have been laid along the entire length, welding works cover over 41 km, and the trench excavations made are 45 km. All 14 trenchless crossings under roads and railways have been successfully implemented, as well as three of the five planned horizontal drillings.

One of the largest companies on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange has announced plans to raise capital of nearly 125 million leva. The board of directors of the pharmaceutical company Sopharma has approved three prospectuses for warrant issues that will allow investors to subscribe for shares over the next three, five or seven years. The company plans to issue three separate issues with 8,985,960 warrants at a price of 0.27 leva each. The first issue will allow investors to subscribe for shares at a price of 3.6 leva over a three-year period. The second will have a five-year exercise period at a price of 4.56 leva. And the third will have a seven-year period at a price of 5.7 leva. The price of Sopharma's shares has grown by over 40% over the past 12 months and if it manages to maintain this pace, the share price may exceed the exercise price of the warrants in a few years. The issue price of the warrants, which are usually issued at around BGN 0.01, also carries a certain commitment from investors, who would register a loss if they decide not to exercise their right to subscribe for shares. From the issuance of the warrants alone, Sopharma could raise over BGN 7 million, which is not a large sum for a company with nearly BGN 1.3 billion in revenue for the first six months of 2025. For each issue to be successful, at least 20% of the warrants, or 1,797,192 warrants, will have to be subscribed. With a minimum subscription, the amount raised for Sopharma would be around BGN 24.9 million. With a maximum subscription of the warrants, however, the amount raised would reach nearly BGN 124 million. Subscription of the warrants does not guarantee the subsequent subscription of shares, since the warrants as an instrument grant the right to subscribe, but it is not mandatory that it be exercised. As of the end of June, Sopharma's net profit for the year was over 76 million leva. In addition to the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, the company's shares are also traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.

In 2024, the European Union as a whole remained Russia's third largest trading partner, writes the German publication Bild. The annual trade turnover between Russia and the EU amounted to 67.5 billion euros last year. At the same time, the structure of trade has changed significantly last year. Germany (years ago Russia's largest European trading partner) has already almost completely stopped importing Russian goods - by 92%. Thus, the trade turnover between Russia and Germany last year amounted to a total of only $ 9.5 billion. While Hungary, meanwhile, increased imports from Russia (mainly energy) by 31%, to $ 6.2 billion. Russia's main trading partner last year and this year is China, which is the country with the second largest economy in the world. Last year, the volume of Russian goods imported into China amounted to almost $ 130 billion in financial terms, with the total trade turnover between the two countries reaching about $ 250 billion. At the same time, China increased its imports of primary aluminum from Russia by 64% in the period January-August 2025 compared to the same period last year, to $3.94 billion, according to data from the General Administration of Customs of the People's Republic of China, Interfax reports. This is approximately 1.49 million tons at average prices on the London Metal Exchange (LME) for this period. Specifically, for August, China imported <b>aluminum</b> from Russia worth $388.2 million, which is 2% more year-on-year. Imports of refined copper from Russia increased 2.3 times year-on-year in financial terms over the eight months, to $2.83 billion (compared to $1.2 billion a year earlier).

Donald Trump and Xi Jinping are set to meet this week amid the shocking state of the world’s most important bilateral relationship. The United States and China have been trading blows for weeks. Washington has tightened restrictions on technology exports and threatened higher tariffs; Beijing has retaliated with sanctions and restrictions on rare earths. The two countries are communicating poorly. The White House is convinced that America has the upper hand in this game of nerves. It believes China is weak. But the reality is different. Beijing is winning the trade war. It has learned to escalate and retaliate as effectively as the United States. And it is experimenting with its own extraterritorial trade rules, changing the course of the global economy. When Trump returned to the Oval Office, the administration’s goal was to cripple China’s manufacturing machine, extract financial and trade concessions, and slow the Asian country’s technological development. Six months later, China is breathing easier than the United States — for three reasons. First, it has proven capable of resisting American coercion and retaliating, achieving what some critics of Trump have called escalating superiority. Some Trump critics attribute this to TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out). But it also reflects China’s underlying strength, preparedness, and skill. The tariffs imposed by the US president on the Asian country in April were lifted after a Wall Street crash. Recently, after Beijing restricted exports of rare earth elements used in high-tech manufacturing, Trump threatened a 100% tariff, but then backed down. His threats to paralyze China with a near-total embargo are not credible, because that would also hurt America. China has learned to retaliate skillfully. After Trump imposed a tariff on Chinese container ships calling at US ports, Beijing responded with port fees of its own. The Asian country has threatened antitrust investigations to pressure American companies like DuPont, Google, Nvidia and Qualcomm. Its refusal to buy American soybeans, a $12 billion market for Midwestern farmers last year and the largest American export to China, is hitting a voter bloc that is valuable to Trump. While some American strangleholds on China remain, such as on aircraft engines, Xi has taken firm action to free China’s supply chains from foreign players while making the country indispensable to the supply chains of others. In theory, Trump could up the ante by cutting off China’s access to the dollar banking system. But he probably won’t do so, as the ensuing turmoil in financial markets would hurt the United States badly. Amidst all this tit-for-tat measures, China is trial-and-errorly developing a new set of global trade norms. This is his second area of ​​success. He wants to build a Beijing-led system on the ruins of the old liberal trade order, one that rivals Trump’s “tariff empire.” China has already shifted the geography of its trade: in the year to September, its exports of goods rose by more than 8%, even as those to America fell by 27%. Beijing’s threats to restrict exports of rare earths are frightening because it dominates this market and could paralyze Western production chains. But they are also noteworthy because they show that China is trying to impose a system of global licensing. It is a more brutal version of the methods by which America controls the semiconductor industry. Expect more examples of how the Asian country is rewriting the rules of trade, taking advantage of its position as a complex manufacturer and the largest trading partner of more than 70 countries. The final reason China is winning is that the trade war has made Xi and the Communist Party stronger, not weaker. Outside observers point to the country’s enormous problems, including a property nightmare, fearful consumers, squeezed entrepreneurs, and the overcapacity and inefficient allocation of capital that industrial policy creates. But for many Chinese, Trump’s brutal push vindicates Xi’s 12-year project to prepare China for a hostile world by transforming it into a techno-industrial superpower. Last week, the Communist Party leadership met to discuss a new five-year plan. It is expected to double down on Xi’s techno-nationalist approach. Many things could still go wrong for China. Redirecting exports away from America could prompt more countries to raise tariffs. The nascent licensing regime could create a bureaucratic nightmare for Beijing and other countries. As the United States is discovering, using economic power as a “stick” is risky. The incentive for other nations to diversify and innovate to reduce their dependence on you is growing rapidly. The prospect that looms is not one of two countries overcoming their differences, but of belligerent giants turning their economic power into a weapon. And even if China wins Trump’s trade war, the retreat from open trade ultimately makes everyone a loser.

Chinese companies are selling dollars at a pace not seen since December 2020, signaling a fundamental shift in corporate behavior and growing confidence in the yuan’s strength against the U.S. currency, the China Daily reported. Banks sold $51 billion on behalf of their clients in September. Data from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange also showed a 7% monthly increase in cross-border payments among non-banks to $1.37 trillion. The dynamics reflect a dramatic shift from previous trade conflicts, when Beijing allowed the yuan to weaken to offset the impact of tariffs. Now the authorities are maintaining a strong currency to limit capital outflows and support the internationalization of the yuan. The People’s Bank of China has set the reference rate against the dollar near its highest levels this year. Analysts report a growing number of foreign clients choosing to pay in yuan, with some companies’ orders settled in yuan reaching 10-20% of total exports. For the first three quarters, the banking sector reported a cumulative net surplus of $63.2 billion in foreign exchange settlements, while cross-border capital recorded net inflows of $119.7 billion. In parallel with the “unloading” of dollars, Beijing dramatically accelerated its gold accumulation in 2025. The People’s Bank of China purchased gold for the 11th consecutive month, adding 1.2 tons in September alone and reaching total reserves of 74.06 million ounces worth $283.3 billion. This strategic move fits into the broader context of the search for alternatives to dollar-dominated financial systems. In October 2025, the BRICS countries launched a precious metals exchange, allowing trading in gold, platinum and rare earth minerals without using US dollars. Gold prices soared above $4,000 an ounce in 2025, up 56% year-on-year, with China becoming “the single biggest driver behind this historic rally,” according to Thorsen Slok, chief economist at Apollo Global Management. The influence extends beyond central bank purchases to household consumption, arbitrage trading and institutional diversification. Morgan Stanley sees the dollar falling 11% in 2025, its worst performance since 1973, while 68% of BRICS trade now bypasses the dollar entirely. Goldman Sachs raised its December 2026 gold forecast to $4,900 an ounce, with some analysts projecting prices as high as $10,000 by 2028. The BRICS precious metals exchange poses a concrete challenge to American financial dominance, as member countries control about 72% of global rare earth reserves. Central banks worldwide now hold more gold than U.S. Treasury bonds, excluding the Federal Reserve, a change reflecting growing concerns about the risks of asset freezes following the $300 billion Russian reserves scandal in 2022.