Loans continue to grow, but the pace in most segments is slowing down. In total, banks' portfolios increased by BGN 125.4 million in February and reached BGN 61.57 billion. On an annual basis, however, the growth decreased to 4.13% from 4.57% in January and 7.42% a year earlier. The growth in February comes entirely from retail lending. Consumer loans increased by BGN 109.4 million, reaching BGN 11.95 billion, and housing loans by a little over BGN 100 million. They are already 12.07 billion, remaining the fastest growing segment - 11.35% on an annual basis. In comparison, the increase in consumer loans has been below 5% for the second month in a row. In February, corporate loans decreased by BGN 68.5 million, and on an annual basis the increase cooled to 2.6%. Bad and restructured loans in the system remain virtually unchanged - a decrease from only BGN 7.9 million to BGN 4.93 billion.

Slow vaccination in Bulgaria can have serious economic consequences. This, together with the combination of increased political risk due to the upcoming elections, calls into question the projected GDP growth of 4% for the first quarter of 2021. The recovery in Bulgaria and Central and Eastern Europe follows similar trends, but in terms of the rate of vaccination at the moment there are serious differences, and this should not be underestimated, said the manager of the company for risk assessment in Bulgaria Plamen Dimitrov. According to Coface, among the most risky sectors in Bulgaria for the first quarter of 2021 are energy, transport and textiles (despite increased sales of sportswear, clothing manufacturers report a 30% decline in 2020), woodworking and car trade (a significant decrease of 37% in 2020 and a slight recovery in 2021). The ICT sector is developing relatively sustainably, along with the chemical industry. As expected, the pharmaceutical sector continues to grow in 2021 after the reported growth of 11% last year.

Mergers of banks operating in Bulgaria are forthcoming. This is predicted by Deloitte Central Europe in a study on mergers and acquisitions in the banking sector in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Since 2015, there are 6 major transactions on the Bulgarian banking market. From the third quarter of 2019 until now there are no new mergers and acquisitions, but further consolidation in the sector is expected, as the concentration of the Bulgarian banking market is relatively low, the analysis says. The Bulgarian banking sector has seen strong growth since the 2008 crisis in terms of total assets. The main driver of enlargement in 2019 is the growing income of the people, which stimulates the demand for banking products. In terms of asset quality, there is also an improving trend. Although levels of bad credit are still relatively high compared to other CEE countries, they have been steadily declining over the past four years, according to the analysis. The banking sector in Bulgaria is dominated by large subsidiaries of European banking groups, which own most of the total assets. As a result of the acquisition of Piraeus Bank by Postbank, as well as the acquisition of Société General Expressbank by DSK Bank, the banking sector in Bulgaria is becoming increasingly concentrated in line with the regulator's strategy to reduce the number of banking licenses and improve the capital base, the study on mergers and acquisitions said.

Polish real estate developer Globe Trade Centre (GTC) said that it has completed the construction of the Advance Business Center 2 (ABC 2) office buidling in the Bulgarian capital Sofia. The building has a lettable area of 17,800 square metres, GTC said in an annual financial statement. In addition, GTC launched the construction of the 8,300 sq. m. Sofia Tower 2 class A office project in Sofia in 2020. GTC currently operates three other projects in Bulgaria - Mall of Sofia, Sofia Tower 1, and Advance Business Centre 1.

Metallic JSC Stara Zagora is the contractor of the metal part of the construction of the three pedestrian bridges on the ring road of Sofia. The installation of the first two of them started a few days ago and is now being completed successfully, and the third is still being made in the company's halls. Each of the three facilities weighs about 70 tons. They are designed by the design bureau Ircon LTD, which have extensive experience in the complex design of industrial and public buildings. They are made of large profiles special structural steel with tight bolted connections. The quality control of the construction is performed 100 percent with an ultrasound scanner and radiography. The metal parts of the pedestrian overpasses are treated with a three-layer system for applying a special coating, which guarantees stability and strength over time.

Telenor Bulgaria reports higher sales and subscriber revenue, but a decrease in its profit for the past year, show the results of the Czech parent company PPF Telecom Group. Revenues of the Bulgarian mobile operator increased by 4.3% to EUR 400 million (BGN 781 million), and profit before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) decreased by 1.7% to EUR 177 million (BGN 346 million). Subscribers decreased by 1.4% to 3.47 million people - a trend that has been observed for several years in all operators due to government regulations that have limited the number of prepaid cards per individual. Contract customers are 82% of all. One of the main indicators for the performance in the industry - the average revenue per subscriber (ARPU), continues to grow and is the largest among the three Bulgarian operators. It is up by 7% compared to the end of 2019 to EUR 9.1 (BGN 17.8). According to the report of PPF Telecom Group, Telenor Bulgaria is the largest operator in the country in terms of revenues from mobile services with a share of 34%, followed by A1 Bulgaria with 33% and BTC with 31%. The Bulgarian market is the fourth largest in the PPF Telecom Group in terms of subscribers and revenue (if you count Serbia and Montenegro together, as in the report of the Czech company). About 19% of the group's 18.3 million customers are in Bulgaria.

Bulgarian machine engineering company Hydraulic Elements and Systems (HES) said that it expects its sales revenue to rise by an annual 1.06% to BGN 16.4 million. Sales in March alone are projected at BGN 4.6 million, HES said in a stock exchange filing. In the first two months of 2021, the company's sales rose 13.13% year-on-year to BGN 11.8 million, while its preliminary gross profit amounted to BGN 1.85 million. Yambol-based HES is a unit of local industrial group Stara Planina Hold.

The German auto industry is ready to meet the more ambitious climate targets set by the EC, the country's carmakers' leaders told Chancellor Angela Merkel. Carmakers have concluded that vaster introduction of electric vehicles will allow them to comply with stricter carbon regulations, the report said. The report was prepared by an industry working group set up at the last auto summit. The EC plans to tighten emissions targets again as part of its Green Deal. The current target is to reduce emissions by 37.5% from 2020 to the end of the decade. The commitment of the German car companies was recently confirmed by the largest manufacturer in Europe - Volkswagen AG, which unveiled a week ago its strategy for electrification of its products and the construction of six electric vehicle battery plants within the Old Continent. For its part, BMW plans to make up about half of its total sales by 2030, while at the same time intending to replace its Mini city car brand with electric cars.

Intel announced that it will spend $20 billion to build two new chip factories, called fabs, in Chandler, Arizona. Intel stock rose as much as 5% on the news in extended trading on Tuesday. The announcement, coinciding with new CEO Pat Gelsinger’s first public remarks since taking over the job, signals that Intel will continue to focus on manufacturing during industry shifts that have led competitors to increasingly separate chip design and chip fabrication. The news comes during a global chip shortage that is snarling industries from automobiles to electronics and worries the U.S. is falling behind in semiconductor manufacturing. “Intel is and will remain a leading developer of process technology, a major manufacturer of semiconductors, and the leading provider of silicon globally,” Gelsinger said. Intel also said that it will act as a “foundry,” or a manufacturing partner, for other chip companies that focus on semiconductor design but need a company to actually make the chips. Intel said its foundry division will be called Intel Foundry Services and will be led by Randhir Thakur, a current Intel senior vice president.

China’s daily output of COVID-19 vaccines has reached about 5 million doses, more than tripling the 1.5 million-dose daily production rate on Feb. 1, official media said on Wednesday. China has supplied more than 100 million doses domestically, the Xinhua news agency said on its social media page, citing Xiao Yaqing, the minister of industry and information technology. A total of 80.46 million vaccine doses were given by Monday, Xinhua said. That compares with 74.96 million administered as of the end of Saturday, indicating a significant acceleration of the vaccination drive. Reuters calculations based on official data found that an average of 2.8 million doses were given between March 21 and March 22, up from about 1.7 million doses a day on average between March 15 and March 20. Feng Zijian, deputy director of Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Monday he expected a substantial increase in the number of daily COVID-19 vaccinations from April onwards. China aims to vaccinate 40% of its 1.4 billion people by the middle of the year, according to state media and a top health adviser.