The debt of the Central Government subsector at the end of February 2020 amounted to BGN 23.61 billion. The internal liabilities amount to BGN 5.89 billion and the external liabilities amount to BGN 17.72 billion. The Ministry of Finance reported that at the end of the reporting period, the debt ratio of the Central Government sub-sector to gross domestic product (GDP) was 18.6%, with the share of domestic debt 4.6% and foreign debt - 14.0%. At the end of the period, the debt structure of the central government sub-sector accounted for 24.9% and external debt of 75.1%. The guaranteed debt of the Central Government subsector as of February 29 amounted to BGN 131.9 million. The internal guarantees amount to BGN 65.8 million and the external guarantees amount to BGN 66.1 million. The central government / GDP sub-sector debt ratio is 0.1%. According to the official register of the government and government guaranteed debt kept by the Ministry of Finance, the government debt by the end of February 2020 reached BGN 22.10 billion or 17.4% of GDP. The internal liabilities amount to BGN 5.56 billion and the external liabilities amount to BGN 16.55 billion. Government guaranteed debt in February amounted to BGN 1.73 billion, domestic guarantees amounted to BGN 65.8 million and the government guaranteed debt to GDP ratio was 1.4%.

Unemployment in Bulgaria in February 2020 was 4.1 per cent, unchanged from January and down from 4.7 per cent in February 2019, European Union statistics agency Eurostat said, citing seasonally-adjusted figures. The February 2019 figure represented an estimated 157 000 unemployed people in Bulgaria and the number decreased to 138 000 in February 2020. Youth unemployment in Bulgaria was 10.3 per cent in February 2020, up from 9.8 per cent in February 2019, Eurostat said. Bulgaria reported its first four confirmed Covid-19 cases on March 8. By the morning of April 1, the figure had increased to 412. There have been reports of employers laying off staff, while expatriate Bulgarians have returned to the country in large numbers. Eurostat is scheduled to report Bulgaria’s March 2020 unemployment figures on April 30. Eurostat said that in February 2020, average unemployment in the EU was 6.5 per cent, stable compared with January 2020 and down from 6.9 per cent in February 2019. The February 2020 figure remained the lowest since the start of the agency’s monthly unemployment series in February 2000. Average youth unemployment in the EU in February 2020 was 14.9 per cent, Eurostat said.

A concessionaire has been appointed on the sea beach "Kavatsi - South", Nessebar municipality, Burgas region. After an open procedure, the Council of Ministers authorizes the Minister of Tourism to conclude a concession contract with "MIT-SECURITY-85" EOOD, within one month from entering force of decision of the Council of Ministers. The amount of the concession fee for each calendar year from the term of the concession is determined in accordance with the Methodology for determining the minimum amount of concession fee for sea beaches and the proposed by the concessionaire amount in royalty of 11.40% excluding VAT. The annual concession fee for the first year of the concession period is BGN 57 083 excluding VAT. The start date of the concession is the date of entry into force of the concession contract.

Economy Minister Emil Karanikolov signed five investment certificates for projects envisaging investments of BGN 180.6 million and creation of 2000 jobs. Four of the projects are of Bulgaria Air Maintenance, Leoni Bulgaria, Reisswolf Bulgaria and the Trade League - Global Pharmacy Center received Class A investment certificates, while Agroden received a Class B investment certificate. The investment project of Bulgaria Air Maintenance SPJSC is for a construction of a maintenance base for, training, logistics, warehousing and storage of cargoes, repair and maintenance of aircraft. The company is planning an investment of nearly BGN 135 million. The international company in the automotive sector Leoni plans a factory for the production of electronic and electrical parts, wiring harnesses and car accessories in the city of Pleven. The investment is close to BGN 33 million, it is planned to hire 1500 people. The third project, which is certified for investment class A, is of Trade League - Global Pharmacy Center JSC for construction of extension of a multidisciplinary hospital for active treatment "Heart and Brain” in Pleven. The project is worth more than BGN 10 million and will create 150 jobs. The latest project for Class A investment is of Reisswolf Bulgaria JSC. The investment is over BGN 2 million, and the project is related to the expansion of the company's activity and construction of a new archive storage in the Bozhurishte Industrial Zone. The Class B investment certificate was awarded to the investment project of Agroden LTD - Plovdiv - "Expansion of adhesive production" for half a million BGN and will create 10 jobs.

Bulgaria's energy regulator has approved a 42.78% decrease in the regulated wholesale gas price for April, in line with recent amendments in a contract between state-owned gas supplier Bulgargaz and Russia's Gazprom Export. The price in April will fall by 18.84 to 25.20 BGN per MWh, excluding VAT and excise duty, the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission said in a statement. As a result of the drop in gas prices, the energy regulator has decided to reduce by an average 21.84% the price of heating services provided by utilities running mainly on natural gas as of April 1. Earlier this month, Bulgargaz negotiated a 40.3% cut in the price of Russian natural gas imports based on an agreement between the European Commission and the Russian company. Bulgargaz and Russia’s Gazprom changed the pricing formula, setting as its main component the price on the regional markets instead of that of petroleum derivatives. Bulgarian energy regulations were recently changed and now require Bulgargaz to set the gas price on a monthly instead of quarterly basis. The Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (EWRC) has the final say on the proposed changes in the wholesale price, at which the state-owned company sells natural gas to end-suppliers and customers directly connected to its transmission network. Bulgaria currently imports almost all of the natural gas it needs from Russia. The country intends to diversify half of its imports this year.

Steel Industry is cutting 301 of its employees because of an emergency. Anton Petrov, representative of the Belgian company Viohalco, which owns the Pernik steelmaking company, reported the news. According to him, they are from all units of the company. The measure is being taken because of a fall in production and a fall in production prices caused by the worldwide pandemic of COVID-19. Orders decreased by 40%. "The automotive industry is one of the drivers for ferrous metallurgy, and it has stopped everywhere," Petrov told BTA. Thus, the company will employ about 950 people and another 350 in accompanying companies. There is no direct correlation between the cuts made and the water crisis in Pernik. According to him, in January the company lost some orders because of the water situation. "We have now been restructured, we use water from our own sources and from the river, we have taken actions to recycle the water," Petrov said. With the cutbacks Steel Industry intends to achieve better operational suitability and competitiveness, as well as to preserve the activity of the enterprise.

Bulgaria's Financial Supervision Commission said that it has asked local Groupama Zhivotozastrahovane to provide additional information and documents regarding its intention to absorb its unit Groupama Express Life. The regulator did not provide further details in its statement. In October 2019, Groupama Zhivotozastrahovane completed the acquisition of 100% of Express Life Insurance from the local units of Hungary's OTP. Express Life Insurance was subsequently renamed to Groupama Express Life.

Germany pledged to help startups hit by the fallout from the coronavirus with short-term financial assistance worth around 2 billion euros. The program is designed specifically for startups which may not be able to get the support they need from a wider package of measures the government launched last week, Finance Minister Olaf Scholz and Economy Minister Peter Altmaier told reporters in Berlin Wednesday. “For these young, innovative companies, classic credit instruments are often not suitable,” Altmaier said. “So we’re allocating 2 billion euros to expand venture capital so that financing rounds for innovative German startups can still take place.” Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling coalition on Friday secured final parliamentary approval for a package worth more than 750 billion euros to address the economic fallout from the virus. The aid initially did not extend to startups but the government later said that companies worth more than 50 million euros will be eligible. State development bank KfW also has about 500 billion euros available to provide liquidity for firms struggling with a collapse in demand.

Nearly 50% of companies say they are at least somewhat likely to conduct layoffs over the next three months due to coronavirus COVID-19, while more than one-third of firms (37%) say they already have instituted a hiring freeze. This comes on the heels of a Federal Reserve estimate that stated that the coronavirus economic freeze could cost 47 million jobs and send the unemployment rate past 32%. That’s from an online survey of more than 250 companies, varying in size and sector, conducted from March 20–26 by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the oldest outplacement firm in the U.S., which works with companies on transitions services for employees. At that time the survey launched, coronavirus cases had just passed 18,000 in the U.S.; companies were advising employees to work from home; states such as California, New Jersey, Connecticut and New York had started to institute statewide stay-at-home orders; and all but nonessential businesses began shuttering. 27 states have now implemented stay-at-home orders, some coming after this survey period ended. Forty-nine percent of companies told Challenger, Gray & Christmas they are very or somewhat likely to conduct layoffs in the next three months, while 11% reported they have conducted permanent layoffs; another 7% have conducted temporary layoffs.

All three of China's major oil producers have suggested they will slash capital expenditure this year as the novel coronavirus outbreak and plunging oil prices play havoc with their planning and raise the risk of impairment losses across the industry. "We are facing a severe challenge in terms of our first-quarter operating results," said Zhang Yuzhuo, chairman of China Petroleum & Chemical, more widely known as Sinopec, at the company's conference call on Monday. In order to deal with the critical situation, the newly appointed chief said the company has kicked off a 100-day internal cost-cutting campaign, mobilizing the whole organization to improve efficiency. One of the main targets of the campaign is capex. The company spent 147.1 billion yuan ($20.72 billion) last year, a 25% increase from the year before, and it was originally preparing to splash out another 143.4 billion yuan this year, but it is now scrutinizing ways to cut that figure as much as possible. "The company is now actively deliberating on how we could decrease our capex," Zhang said. The point, according to him, is to rigidly examine the return and the cost, and he pledged to publicly announce the recalculated capex plan in April. It is a similar story for PetroChina. The company allocated 296.7 billion yuan in capex last year, which was 16% more than the year before, and the board has earlier approved 295 billion yuan for this year.