Bulgaria's budget remains positive in February, but the government has reduced the surplus by about BGN 250 million. Thus, by the end of the second month of the year, the budget surplus was reduced to BGN 697 million (0.5% of projected GDP) data from the Ministry of Finance show. The positive budget balance is significantly higher than the one achieved in the first two months of 2021 (BGN 24.3 million), when Kiril Ananiev was Minister of Finance. The department of Minister Asen Vassilev points out that among the main factors for the significant excess of revenues over expenditures are higher tax and non-tax revenues. On an annual basis, they grow by BGN 862 million. Thus, as of the end of February, all revenues, aid and donations under the consolidated fiscal program exceeded BGN 8 billion due to inflation. The breakdown of the Ministry of Finance shows that the expenditures for the first two months are slightly higher than a year ago - 7.4 against BGN 7.3 billion. The part of the contribution of the Republic of Bulgaria to the budget of the European Union, paid at the end of the month from the central budget amounts to BGN 296 million, which is implementation of current legislation in the field of EU own resources.

Nearly BGN 4 billion in overdue debts were collected by the public contractors of the National Revenue Agency last year. This is over BGN 200 million more than in 2020, with an increase in the amounts collected for repayment of both liabilities incurred during the year and for older ones. Over 90% of all newly declared taxes and social security contributions in 2021 were paid within the year, according to the NRA. The higher collection rate is due to proactive communication and the partnership approach applied by the NRA, including early notification of debtors who have failed to pay their public debts in full.

Bulgarian transport firm Trans Express Oil increased its stake in local fuel retailer Petrol to 15.31% following the acquisition of 1.49 million Petrol shares, equal to a 5.45% stake, Petrol said. The transaction was conducted on February 17 and settled on February 21, Petrol said in a filing. Also on February 21, insolvent Corporate Commercial Bank sold 1.5 million Petrol shares, representing a 5.51% stake and exited the company. Financial details were not provided. Shares in Petrol last traded on Friday when they closed at BGN 0.246. Petrol operates over 330 fuel stations throughout Bulgaria.

Greece wants to buy electricity from NPP Kozloduy and is ready to sign a long-term contract. This is what the publication of the neighbors Kathimerini claims. Bulgaria's current nuclear facilities - reactors 5 and 6 at NPP Kozloduy, which meet one third of the country's current energy needs and are the cheapest energy source and will allow Bulgaria to start exporting electricity to Greece next year. The media added that in January last year Bulgaria decided to build another reactor at the plant - Unit 7, which is expected to be ready by 2026. Bulgaria is ready to build a new nuclear power plant, especially since there is a declared interest in the energy it will produce, explained the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Asen Vassilev a day ago. One week ago, a Bulgarian delegation visited the Greek capital, Athens, and met with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. At that time, part of the talks was the possibility of bilateral cooperation in the field of energy.

The subsidiary of the resort St. St. Constantine and Elena JSC, Astera I SPJSC, has acquired all 5,000 of its own bonds. As a result, immediately after the settlement, the company will take action to terminate the registration of the issue for trading on the BSE, as well as to deregister the issue and the issuer from the registers of the Central Depository and the Financial Supervision Commission. Azalia I SPJSC-Varna and Astera I SPJSC-Varna announced on December 30, 2021 that they will repurchase their bond issues by the end of February, after which they will deregister the issues. The Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) has already written off the bond issue of Azalia I after the company repurchased all its bonds.

Payhawk, the platform that combines cost and payment management for business clients, has attracted additional funding of USD 100 million, increasing its investment Round B to USD 215 million, the company said. Thus, Payhawk reached an estimate of USD 1 billion, making the company the first Bulgarian unicorn. Leading investor is Lightspeed Venture Partners - a world-renowned venture capital fund with investments of over USD 10.5 billion in companies such as Affirm, Grafana, Faire, FTX, Personio and Snap. Other affiliates are Sprints Capital, Endeavor Catalyst, HubSpot Ventures and Jigsaw VC. The additional funding comes just three months after Payhawk announced the first tranche of its investment round B in November 2021 worth USD 115 million and less than a year after the announcement of round A worth USD 20 million in April 2021. The fresh capital will be used to expand the product team by hiring 60 new senior software engineers in Sofia from the top 1% of the market. This is in order to meet the growing demand for new features such as business trip management, given the gradual return of business travel. 

Bulgarian hotel operator Albena turned to a consolidated net profit of BGN 4.2 million in 2021 from a net loss of BGN 17.8 million last year, as tourism and services activities in the summer of 2021 somewhat improved on the same period in 2020. Albena's revenue jumped to BGN 94.8 million last year from BGN 58.9 million a year prior, the company said in its annual financial statement. The company's total operating expenses also rose in 2021, to BGN 89.8 million from BGN 78 million in 2020. Albena cautioned that it may yet incur Covid-19-related losses as its activity continues to be affected by the pandemic environment.

European Union countries are considering banning Russian ships from entering their ports. The aim is to tighten restrictions following the recent shutdown of air traffic, European officials told Reuters. This is a step that will further hinder trade shipments from Russia. Britain is one step ahead of the European Union and on Tuesday made a formal decision to ban all Russian-flagged ships from entering British ports. Canada has followed suit, saying it will close its ports to Russian ships later this week. This comes a day after the ban on imports of Russian crude oil. With difficult supply chains, such disruptions would be a challenge for Europe, which has already imposed significant sanctions on Russia. The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the EU foreign ministers had discussed the closure of European ports for Russian ships on Sunday. A French government official told Reuters that the EU was working on more sanctions and that it was possible to close ports to Russian ships, but added that any further steps should affect Russia.

US credit card giants Visa and Mastercard said they are blocking Russian banks from their payment networks following international sanctions in response to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. "As a result of the sanctions orders, we have blocked many financial institutions from the Mastercard payment network," Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach said in a statement. Visa said on its website that it "is taking immediate action to ensure compliance with the applicable sanctions and is ready to comply with any additional sanctions that may be imposed". The statements follow the actions of Western governments to impose sanctions on Russian banks and Russian citizens, while the United States, the European Union and other powers seek to isolate the country and punish its economy. Measures taken by credit card companies prevent legal entities and individuals from accessing their platforms.

China plans to launch new rail lines totaling 3,300 kilometers this year along with a slew of measures to improve its comprehensive transport network, the Ministry of Transport said Monday. More than 8,000 kilometers of expressways will be expanded or renovated, said Li Xiaopeng, minister of transport, adding that over 700 kilometers of high-grade waterways will be added or improved. The country will also add eight certified civil-transport airports and continue to develop the green channel for agricultural products to ensure efficient transport of farm and sideline products, noted Li. Fruitful achievements had been made in the previous year to enhance China's transportation infrastructure, said the minister. He added that by the end of 2021, the total operating length of China's high-speed railway network had exceeded 40,000 kilometers. Expressways and high-grade waterways increased to more than 168,000 kilometers and over 16,000 kilometers, respectively. China unveiled a plan in January outlining primary targets for transportation network development in the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025) to achieve integrated development in 2025.