Financial news

The gross external debt amounted to EUR 35,932.9 million (83.7 per cent of GDP) at end-July 2015, decreasing by EUR 3,423.5 million from end-2014. On a year-on-year basis, the gross external debt declined by EUR 2,549.3 million (6.6 per cent) from July 2014, the Bulgarian National Bank said Thursday. Long-term liabilities totalled EUR 27,922.3 million at end-July 2015, down by EUR 1,465.1 million (5 per cent) from end-2014. On a year-one year basis, long-term liabilities decreased by EUR 1,448.7 million (4.9 percent) from July 2014. Short-term liabilities equalled EUR 8,010.6 million, declining by EUR 1,958.4 million (19.6 per cent) from end-2014. On a year-on-year basis, short-term liabilities dropped by EUR 1,100.6 million (12.1 per cent) from July 2014.

Just over 1 million Bulgarians received an income from employment totaling BGN 4080 last year, which means that they have worked for BGN 340 per month, the minimum wage in 2014. The exact number of Bulgarian employees with revenues totaling 12 monthly minimum wages (BGN 4080) is 1,007,695 citizens. In the case of about 361,210 people, the National Revenue Agency received no information about other income.

	Mineral Fuels, Tailoring Products, Canning, Perfumery and Cosmetics, Furniture, Meat Products, Wine, Wood-processing Industry

Companies

Three offers from candidates who want to become financial advisors in the upcoming assessments of assets of banks in Bulgaria have been handed out, the central bank announced. Till the pre-set term - 23rd of September, Oliver Wyman Gmbh, Mazars LLP and Deloitte Bulgaria EOOD presented their offers. The commission on rating of offers has to end its work and to announce the results within 60 working days from the date of opening the offers. Selection of candidates is made under the law for public procurement. The order was announced by the new BNB’s Governor Dimitar Radev in the middle of August. The order is assessed at BGN 1.7 million. Requirement for applicants was to have participated in the assessment of banks in the euro area. It is expected that the tests will be carried out next year, and their results be known until its end.

Bulgaria's Postbank, a unit of Greece's Eurobank, expects to see further consolidation in the Bulgarian banking sector and warned that Europe's migrant crisis could hamper growth in the economy. Chief Executive Petia Dimitrova also played down the impact of the Greek crisis on Greek-owned lenders in Bulgaria and said Eurobank had no plans to sell its Bulgarian operations. Bulgaria's government recently raised its economic growth forecast for this year to 2 percent, and Dimitrova said the economy would accelerate next year and Postbank's lending could increase by 3-5 percent in 2016. Lending in the first half of the year was flat, in line with the whole banking system because of weak demand. "We are very positively surprised by the GDP growth. I hope that the next year they (the government) will target 3 percent. It has all the expectations that it will go in the right direction," Dimitrova said.

Bulgarian-Austrian pharmaceutical company GE Pharmaceuticals opened a second plant for packaging drugs in Botevgrad. New plant with an area of 6700 square meters will increase the production capacity of the company to 80 million blisters per year. The new production will open up to 40 new jobs and thus the total staff at the two plants will reach 150 people. The first plant of GE Pharmaceuticals in Botevgrad was built in 2006. The ceremony was attended by Deputy Minister of Health Vanyo Sharkov, a representative of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce and representatives of pharmaceutical companies from Bulgaria and abroad.

Retail chain Picadilly made a u-turn to the premium segment on the local market. The company started execution of a new strategy-attraction of creditworthy clients. Picadilly is restructuring, as it put a stress on quality custom service and offering of goods of the medium class. In that way the company aims at attracting clients of the medium class, the retail chain’s representatives commented. Picadilly will develop its presence mainly in Sofia and Varna and basically in huge shopping centers. However, it will close some of its locations in the country. Picadilly disposes with 53 sites in eight towns-Sofia, Varna, Burgas, Veliko Turnovo, Lovech, Vidin, Plovdiv, Gabrovo, of which 32 supermarkets under the brand of Picadilly and 21 stores under the brand of Picadilly daily. About half of these stores will continue operating.

Bulgarian start-up Small Foot initiated campaign for fundraising via the platform for shared funding called Kickstarter. The local start-up produces innovative snowshoes which aid fans of winter sports facilitate walking in winter conditions. Via Kickstarter the company hopes to reach potential customers all over the world. With the desired sum of EUR 20 thousand, Small Foot will try to optimize its production process which includes lots of manual work. The campaign in Kickstarter will continue for 30 days. During that period the company might be funded by anyone even with the smallest amount of money. According to one of the company’s owners Ivan Kolev shared fund raising will make Small Foot popular. The searched for sum is obviously just a start for the local entrepreneurs. When the company raises bigger sum it will further make its production more rational. Small Foot is founded back in 2011 by Petar Dimitrov. Afterwards co- owner of Sofia-based company for children’s shoes Kolev and Kolev, Ivan Kolev joins him. From their creation the snowshoes have undergone many changes, but one of the models already successfully sells in Austria, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Japan, and others.

Europe

The European Commission wants all member states to investigate into how many cars use illegal "defeat" devices to cheat emissions tests in light of the scandal at Volkswagen, a Commission spokeswoman said on Thursday. Volkswagen has said 11 million of its diesel cars around the world could be implicated after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency revealed VW had been using software to mask pollutants. "We are inviting all member states to carry out an investigation at national level," Commission spokeswoman Lucia Caudet told reporters. "We need to have a full picture of how many vehicles were fitted with defeat devices, which break EU law." The Commission has proposed new legislation on tightening up its vehicle testing regime to produce results more in line with real driving conditions, which it says is the responsibility of member states to enforce. It is also looking at whether the European Union's system of type approval, when new models are put on to the market, should be changed and has said it has called a meeting with national authorities, but it is not clear when.

America

Growth in Latin America has been slowing down since 2011. This lacklustre situation, caused by weak domestic fundamentals, has been exacerbated by cyclical factors experienced since the second half of 2014. In 2015 we have observed a further deterioration of this downwards trend, with regional GDP expected to contract by 0.2%. It will be the first recession since 2009, when activity shrunk by 1.4% due to the subprime crisis. In this study, we will focus on the three Latin American countries of Argentina, Colombia and Ecuador. Argentina will hold presidential elections in October and is expected to breakeven in 2015. Colombia showed strong performance in 2014 but has been losing momentum due to the effects of lower oil prices. Ecuador’s economy is also continuing to be heavily affected by the low level of oil prices. The second part of the Panorama sets out the latest updates to our Latin America sector barometer.

Asia

The Chinese economy will stabilize in the fourth quarter as government policies continue to take effect, said researchers with Bank of China Ltd (BOC) on Wednesday. They forecast that China's gross domestic product will increase by 6.8 percent in the third quarter and 7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015. GDP growth for the whole year is expected to reach about 7 percent, down 0.3 percentage points from the previous year. Gao Yuwei, a researcher with BOC's Institute of International Finance, said government policies to stabilize the economy will continue to show demonstrable results in the fourth quarter. During the same period, the housing market will also recover further, for China has lowered the down payment for those who use their housing provident funds to buy a second home and eased property investment rules for foreign individuals and institutions. Real estate investment is likely to stabilize, although its growth slowed down by 9.7 percentage points year-on-year in the first eight months of this year, he said.

Herculaneum Sintica

The remains of the ancient city of Herculaneum Sintica is located in southwestern Bulgaria near the village of village of Rupite, Petrich municipality (on the southern slope of the volcanic hill Kozhuh). In ancient times the city was the center of the field Sintica inhabited by Thracian tribes Sinti, which are mentioned by Homer, Herodotus and Thucydides. The town was destroyed in a devastating earthquake in 388. Herculaneum Sintica is one of the few named ancient cities in middle Struma. Archaeological studies show that the city was modern for its time, had a sewerage system. The excavations revealed molds and a wide variety of unfinished, finished and glazed pieces, which indicates the presence of craft workshop. There are coins and two votive tablets. One is of Heracles and one of Artemis, goddess of the hunt. (Photo: Historical Museum Petrich)

On that day:  September 25 – Dobrich public holiday