Financial news

Bulgaria’s unemployment rate stood at 11% in February, down by 0.1 percentage points as compared to a month earlier and 1.2 percentage points lower than in January 2014, the country's Employment Agency said on Tuesday. A total of 361,176 unemployed were registered with the agency’s offices at the end of last month, posting a decrease by 2,788 from January and 39,767 fewer than in February 2014, the agency said in a statement. The number of people who found a job in February totalled 17,006, up by 1,554 from a month earlier and up by 588 compared to the same month the previous year. Meanwhile, the number of registered open positions in February increased by an annual 1,066 to 13,526. Bulgaria, which joined the European Union in 2007, has a population of 7.3 million.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Bulgaria dropped into negative territory in the first month of the year, according to BNB data. FDI in the country was –EUR 16.4 million in January 2015 against EUR 50 million in the equivalent month of 2014. Equity capital was also a negative entity at –EUR 7.6 million. The real property market saw just EUR 1.4 million in investments against levels of EUR 6.4 million in January 2014. The Netherlands was the biggest net investor in Bulgaria, parking a total of EUR 16.9 million in the country. The largest capital outflows were towards Luxembourg, -EUR 87 million.

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Concessions

Bulgaria is preparing to award a concession on the Vidin-Center port terminal on Bulgaria's Danube, the country's transport minister said. The concession will be implemented in partnership with Vidin municipality, Ivaylo Moskovski said. No further details were disclosed. The Vidin-Center port terminal has four quays with a total length of 1,440 m. The operator of the Vidin-Center port terminal is Vidin-Port.

Four sea beaches will be concessioned. The decision would be taken at the meeting of the government today. Two beaches in Kavarna municiplaity will be given at concession. These are Icantaluka 2 and Union of Bulgarian Motorists’ beach. Kozluka beach in Nessebar, as well as Sozopol-Buzludja are also to be concessioned.

Companies

Bulgarian lead and zinc miner Gorubso-Madan is expected to resume its normal operations within the next 10 days after its mines were flooded following heavy snow, the company's owner said. Damage caused by the snow is serious and estimated at several millions of levs, Nikolay Valkanov said. He added that water is still being pumped out of the mines. “For some sections, for some of the mines, we will be back [in operation] this week and for the others - next week. Maybe, after 10 days, normal operations will be resumed in all mines,” said Valkanov. Gorubso-Madan's owner said that the company's equipment has been insured, but he does not expect the majority of the damage to be covered. “The state, I believe, will not get involved since it has no grounds to do so,” Valkanov noted. He also said that workers at the plant will not be forced into taking unpaid days off and most of them will receive their full remuneration.

Attracting a key investment as that of Behr-Hella Thermocontrol GmbH (BHTC) in the Bozhourishte industrial zone off Sofia has elicited interest among other German investors, Bulgarian Economy Minister Bozhidar Loukarski said. BHTC Technical Director Andreas Teuner said that the first stage of BHTC's investment was successfully completed and the plant is already working. At the end of last year and the beginning of the new one the facilities were visited by representatives of BHTC's large clients who had to license the company's production plant in Bulgaria as a supplier, Teuner said. BHTC makes vehicle air conditioning components for Mercedes, BMW, Volkswagen, Scania, Volvo, Skoda, Seat. It emerged at the meeting that inquiries were made to BHTC by other investors about the opportunities in the Bozhourishte industrial zone. One of the interested companies works in the automotive industry. Another one recruits researchers.

The Bulgarian competition regulator said it has given the green light to drug maker Sopharma to take full control over peer Medica. Sopharma's mid-term plans include a possible absorption of its peer within the next three or five years. The deal aims to increase both companies' competitiveness on Bulgaria's drug market, as well as to streamline their operations and boost their efficiency. For the time being Sopharma does not intend to rename Medica. It will, though, add Sopharma-branded products to its portfolio. Earlier this month Sopharma raised its stake in Medica to 30.42% after it acquired 605,000 new shares, equal to 6% of the company. Last month, Sopharma said it completed the absorption of another of its units, Bulgarian Rose - Sevtopolis, and the increase of its capital to BGN 134.8 million from BGN 132 million through a share issue.

The Bulgarian town of Pomorie, on the Black Sea, has launched construction works for a fishing port, the municipal authorities said. Pomorie opened a tender for the construction of the port with an estimated price of BGN 9.4 million a year ago. It said at the time the project is co-financed under the European Fisheries Fund 2007-2013. The port will cover a total area of 41,309 sq m and will have a berth for 40 boats, Pomorie Municipality said in a statement. The project also includes coast reinforcement works and the construction of two breakwaters, among others.

Europe

Germany, France and Italy said they had agreed to join a new China-led Asian investment bank after close ally Britain defied U.S. pressure to become a founder member of a venture seen in Washington as a rival to the World Bank. The concerted move to participate in Beijing's flagship economic outreach project was a diplomatic blow for the United States, reflecting European eagerness to partner with China's fast-growing economy, the second largest in the world. It comes amid prickly trade negotiations between Brussels and Washington, and at a time when EU and Asian governments are frustrated that the U.S. Congress has held up a reform of voting rights in the International Monetary Fund due to give China and other emerging economies more say in global economic governance. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Europe's biggest economy, a major trade partner with Beijing, would be a founding member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

America

US's borrowing limit is getting reinstated and the clock will start ticking toward possible default sometime in October or November when the Treasury runs out of "extraordinary measures" to keep paying the bills. Will the U.S. default? Almost certainly not. Will getting the debt limit raised (or suspended again) be a terrible mess that ripples through markets and dents the economy? Probably. Why should this time be any different? The coming debt limit fight could be even worse than usual given other deadlines and political forces in play. The debt limit will begin to pinch just as Congress needs to pass a new spending bill to keep the government open past the Oct. 1 start of the 2016 fiscal year. We'll get a preview of just how challenging that could be this week when House and Senate Republicans release competing budget blueprints.

Asia

Foreign investment in China was largely flat in February as slower economic growth and higher wage costs made manufacturing less attractive in the country once known as the world's factory. China's ministry of commerce played down the less-than-robust data for the month, citing China's Lunar New Year holiday. It also said that services are becoming an increasingly important magnet for foreign investment, more than offsetting China's dwindling role in low-cost manufacturing. Services are generally less capital-intensive than manufacturing. "There is no reason to get overly excited," ministry spokesman Shen Danyang told reporters on Tuesday. "The trend in the use of foreign direct investment is higher and more of that is going into services." China attracted $8.56 billion of foreign direct investment in February, up a meager 0.9% from a year earlier. The figure was down significantly from January's $13.92 billion, which was up about 29% from a year earlier.

Thracian tomb of Kazanlak

Discovered in 1944, this tomb dates from the Hellenistic period, around the end of the 4th century B.C. It is located in the romantic Valley of Roses, near the town of Kazanluk, and comprises three rooms built of brick – a lobby, a corridor and a dome. Scene of war are shown a central theme, on both sides of which one may see two warriors with their battle attire and weapons. The focal point is the main composition, which describes feast as a foreground to the military and political activities of the deceased. It is there that one may see a married couple of obvious eminence, painted with great skill and care. Numerous figures of wildly galloping horses and battle carts add to the depth of the scene. The dromos and funerary chamber are decorated with frescoes, representing in particular a funeral banquet. The wall paintings by an unknown artist, mainly in red, black, white and green, show a genuine talent which is relatively free of the Greek influence. The Kazanluk tomb is one of the 9 cultural and historical sites in Bulgaria included in the UNESCO list of historical and architectural monuments of global importance. It is also the only monument, completely preserved from the Early Hellenistic Period (4-3 century B.C.).

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