The total producer price index in February 2022 increased by 32.3% compared to the same month of 2021. An increase in prices was registered in the production and distribution of electricity and heat and gas - by 81.8%, in the manufacturing - by 17.9%, and in the mining and quarrying - by 9.7%, according to the NSI data. A month earlier, in January 2022, the national statistics reported an increase in industrial production by 32.6%, which was a historic record since in 2001 these statistics began to be kept. Previously, the NSI reported production inflation, respectively: from 30.8% in December, 31% in November, when the first historical record for last year was set. On an annual basis in February 2022 in the manufacturing industry significant growth was reported in: manufacture of chemical products - by 30.2%, manufacture of wood and of products of wood and cork, except furniture - by 26.1%, and in manufacture of paper, paperboard and paper products of paper and cardboard - by 24.8%. On a monthly basis, compared to January 2022, the General Producer Price Index in February 2022 increased by 1.0%, with an increase registered in manufacturing - by 2.7%, and in mining and quarrying - by 2.3%, and a decrease was reported in the production and distribution of electricity and heat and gas - by 2.4%.

Insurers will increase revenues, as well as payments, by the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, according to data published on the website of the Financial Supervision Commission (FSC). The premium income of insurance companies from non-life insurance amounts to over BGN 2.6 billion at the end of the last quarter of 2021. For the same period in 2020 the gross premium income amounts to BGN 2.4 billion, and on an annual basis reports a growth of just over 8%. This amount includes premium income from activities outside Bulgaria in the amount of BGN 258.77 million at the end of the last quarter of 2021 compared to BGN 208.8 million at the end of the last quarter of 2020. The increase on an annual basis is by 24%. Almost 71% of gross premium income comes from motor vehicle insurance. This share is declining on an annual basis (it was 71.1% in 2020), the data show. Non-life insurance benefits paid at the end of 2021 amounted to a total of BGN 1.058 billion at the end of the last quarter of 2021 compared to BGN 1.012 billion at the end of the last quarter of 2020. The increase on an annual basis is 4.5% .

Investment of over EUR 60 million in advanced technologies in the automotive industry, creation of over 130 new jobs for qualified specialists in the next 2 years, serial production from 2023 of elements that will be used in a new generation of electric vehicles. This includes the start-up project of aluminum manufacturer Etem Gestamp to expand its plant in Sofia - one of the largest foreign investments in Bulgaria in recent years. "The investment plan is related to a specific car project, which will start early next year and will last 8 years. This is a long-term investment and the results for the Bulgarian economy will be significant as local suppliers and local staff will be hired," said Etem Gestamp CEO Emanuel Fundukis. In addition, through the project, the company operating in Bulgaria will strengthen its position in Europe and internationally as one of the few reliable suppliers of aluminum profiles and components for the automotive market. The entire investment, which is planned to be made within nearly 2 years, includes the purchase of equipment, construction of a production building and fully automated internal logistics. The funds will be directed to both areas in which the company specializes in Sofia - extruded profiles and automotive profiles. This will increase the plant's capacity from 35,000 tons of production per year to 50,000 tons.

The international IT company Amdaris, based in Bristol, Great Britain, announced that they are opening an office in Sofia. The company works in the field of digital transformation and until recently before the war developed a serious business in Ukraine. The Bulgarian center is the sixth office of the company, which besides Ukraine is present in Great Britain, Romania, Moldova and Dubai. The new branch of Amdaris aims to hire more than 50 employees by the end of 2022. The office in the Bulgarian capital will create new job opportunities for the growing set of technological talents in the country, Amdaris reports. "At Amdaris, we are excited to open in Sofia, Europe's leading technology center. The software industry in Eastern Europe continued to grow during the pandemic, but now that the region is facing new challenges, Amdaris looks forward to building creativity "said Andy Rodgers, co-CEO of Amdaris. The IT company is technology-agnostic and as such hires Delivery Leads, Portfolio Directors, Technical Architects and developers of .Net, Angular, React, Java, PHP and Python, among other roles.

Salaries in Mini Maritza-East will be increased by 15% from April 1, 2022. This was agreed by the participants in the Coal Branch Council, which was held at the Ministry of Energy under the chairmanship of Deputy Minister Plamen Danailov. About 7.8% of the growth of wages covers the officially reported inflation for 2021. In addition, another 7.2% were added to them, while maintaining all social benefits for employees in the company. The participants in the branch council also agreed on the investment program of the company. For 2022 it is worth BGN 62 million, but will be supplemented to BGN 100 million. The funds will be invested in the necessary current and capital repairs, as well as in renewable energy sources for own use. The Ministry of Energy is committed to provide full assistance to the company to provide the necessary funding for the normal investment process.

Sofia-headquartered digital assets platform Nexo said that it is launching an in-house investment and acquisition fund, Nexo Ventures, through which it will deploy USD 150 million (EUR134.8 million) for long-term investments in early-stage retail and institutional projects linking up with the company's core activity. Nexo Ventures will prioritise five areas of investment, which are Web 3, decentralised finance (DeFi), metaverse, virtual worlds and play-t-earn games, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), payments and trading infrastructure as well as compliance solutions, the company said in a statement last week. The freshly-unveiled fund has already made its first investment, by participating in a 9 million dollar funding round completed last week by The TIE, a New York-based provider of information services for digital assets. Founded in 2017, Nexo is a regulated cryptocurrency borrowing and exchange platform, offering credit lines, trading and over-the-counter (OTC) capabilities as well as a a crypto wallet. In December 2021, the company announced it is the first crypto lender to introduce crypto credit backed by NFTs, as a results of its partnership with Singapore-based hedge fund Three Arrows Capital.

Greek company Celestyal Cruises plans to add new ships to its fleet and focus on the Bulgarian market. The new ships are planned to be put into operation next year, Investor.bg business news outlet quoted Celestyal Cruises' chief commercial officer Leslie Peden as saying. The travel company currently has 891 employees working onboard its two cruise ships - Celestyal Crystal and Celestyal Olympia, which offer an all-inclusive service. The number of employees working at the company's offices is 140. In order to attract Bulgarian tourists, the company relies on cruises departing from the Greek city of Thessaloniki. The port there is particularly attractive, as there are many flights to the city and the place is more accessible to both people from the Balkans and travellers from Western Europe, Peden explained. Celestyal Cruises is 60%-owned by US-based venture capital and private equity firm Searchlight Capital Partners, which acquired the majority stake in November 2021 through an investment of USD 30 million (EUR 26.9 million).

European Union officials raided the offices of Gazprom PJSC’s German units as part of a probe into the Russian gas giant’s role in pushing prices in the continent to records, according to people familiar with the matter. Officials visited offices of companies including Gazprom Germania GmbH and Wingas GmbH, which supplies about 20% of the German market, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. The raid comes as Europe steps up its probe into whether Gazprom’s behavior caused a spike in gas prices and worsened the region’s energy crunch, the people said. Europe has been grappling with an energy crisis since last year, as Gazprom capped additional supplies at a time inventories were already at their lowest level in more than a decade. The head of the International Energy Agency earlier this year blamed Russia for the energy crunch that’s caused European factories producing everything fro fertilizers to metals to shut down. The European Commission has been closely monitoring Gazprom’s actions in gas markets.

Vietnamese carmaker VinFast and the government of the US state of North Carolina have announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding for the establishment of the first VinFast plant in North America. The company intends to invest up to USD 2 billion in the first phase of the project, creating more than 7,000 jobs. Vietnam's largest conglomerate, Vingroup, said it planned to invest USD 4 billion in its first plant in the United States. Construction is scheduled to begin this year after the company receives the necessary permits and is expected to be completed by July 2024. The plant's initial capacity will be 150,000 units per year. VinFast began accepting pre-orders worldwide for two electric SUVs to begin deliveries in the fourth quarter. President Biden said VinFast's investment, which will create more than 7,000 jobs, is "the latest example of its economic strategy in action".

Japanese retail sales fell in February for the first time in five months, as extended COVID-19 curbs hit service sector businesses, casting doubts over the prospects of a consumption-led recovery this quarter. The government lifted coronavirus restrictions across the nation this week, but households remain guarded about rising prices, which have been driven by the Ukraine war and yen's sharp weakening. Retail sales fell 0.8% in February from a year earlier, government data showed on Wednesday, much weaker than the median market forecast for a 0.3% decrease. It followed a downwardly revised 1.1% rise in January and marked the first year-on-year contraction since September, when the Delta coronavirus variant overwhelmed hospitals across Japan. Compared with the previous month, retail sales declined 0.8% on a seasonally adjusted basis in February, following an upwardly revised 0.9% fall in the previous month. Throughout February, the government has kept curbs in place in most of urban areas across the nation, as coronavirus infections and death tallies hit the record-highs in the month due to the more infectious Omicron variant.