The international rating agency Moody's confirmed Bulgaria's foreign and local currency credit rating of Baa1 with a stable outlook. Data for Bulgaria as of November 2022 show that industrial production and private consumption in the country are relatively resilient to rising production and consumer prices. Real growth of 2.7% in gross domestic product in 2022 and a slowdown to 1.4% in 2023 are expected by Moody's and indicate that these estimates are among the most stable growth rates compared to other European countries this year.According to the agency inflation will decrease to 6% at the end of 2023, compared to 14.3% at the end of 2022. In line with the need to fulfill the Maastricht criteria, Moody's expectations are that the budget deficit will remain stable around 3 % of GDP in 2023 and 2024. However, public debt will slightly increase to 23.8% and 24.7% of GDP, respectively, at the end of 2023 and 2024 as the overall fiscal position of the country as generally remains unchanged. Moody's believes that Bulgaria can still meet its goal of adopting the euro from 2024, but in the main scenario for the country, the process is likely to be delayed until at least 2025.

The National Revenue Agency (NRA) issued over 223,000 Personal Identification Codes (PICs) last year. Nearly 1.5 million users have an active NRA PIK. Among the services that are used with it - a total of 60, are the submission of tax and insurance declarations, reports on liabilities with the possibility of payment, including local taxes and fees, reports on paid income, on social security income, on payments made and repaid with them obligations, current status of employment contracts, submission of applications, receipt of certificates and others. Users who have a personal code can check if they have public obligations subject to enforcement and repay them to enjoy various tax benefits and a discount for early online declaration and payment until March 31, 2023. Taxpayers have the option to also benefit from the pre-filled tax return, which will be available in the e-Services Portal at the beginning of March. The e-services of the NIH, the National Health Insurance Fund, the Employment Agency, the Registration Agency, the Ministry of Agriculture, and 70 municipalities can also be used with the PIK issued by the National Revenue Agency.

The turnover of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) decreased in January by 69.26% compared to December and by 26.71% compared to January 2022 to over BGN 27.1 million. Compared to the previous month, there was an increase of 8.18% to 5,530 transactions, but on an annual basis there was a decrease of 41%. Over a third of the turnover in January (37.54%, almost BGN 10.2 million) was formed by trading in foreign shares. Almost another third came from the Standard segment (32.51%, over BGN 8.8 million). Over 4.5 million BGN turnover for the month (16.69%) comes from the Premium segment. All indices report growth compared to December – SOFIX by 2.23%, BGBX40 – by 1.79%, BGREIT – by 2.67%, BGTR30 – by 1.35%. A total of 12 of the issues in SOFIX end the month with increases, and 3 – with decreases. The shares of "First Investment Bank" (PIB) rose the most - by 18.59%, "Doverie Obedinen Holding" (6.05%), "Real Estate Fund Bulgaria" (6%), and fell the most the shares of "Eurohold Bulgaria" - by 2.78%, "Sirma Group Holding" - by 1.93%, and "Telelink Business Services Group" - by 1.77%.

The distributor of textiles and cosmetics for hotels "Laren MN" Ltd is currently building its own factory in the village of Yulievo in Stara Zagora. For the past year, the company had revenues of BGN 2.4 million, which is 4 times more than the previous year 2021, when sales were BGN 606 thousand. The company mainly works with 4- and 5-star hotels along the country's coast and mountain resorts, but also with guest houses and AirBnB. The construction of its own production base will start in 2022 with an investment of BGN 1.8 million, provided with own funds and a bank loan from UBB. The factory is expected to be completed in August this year and the first products to be produced in September. A capacity of 1 million small bottles per month is planned. The factory will employ 24 workers, which include machine operators, logistics and more.

OPTICS JSC opened its new production building, which is located on the territory of the former Riton-P tailoring enterprise in the town of Panagyurishte. The building meets all the high standards in optical production. The enterprise has over 150 thousand square meters of its own land and over 42 thousand square meters of built-up area, modernly equipped for production purposes.

The mayor of Dobrich Yordan Yordanov submits a proposal for an extraordinary session, scheduled for February 9, at which he will propose the establishment of a sole proprietorship "Industrial Park Dobrich", with the sole owner of the capital being the Municipality of Dobrich. In 2005, the state transferred the ownership of a field - a former military unit in the city of Dobrich with an area of 424,248 square meters - to the Municipality of Dobrich.

The pharmaceutical company "Sopharma" PLC reports for 2022 sales in the amount of BGN 239.231 million compared to BGN 208.067 million at the end of December 2021, or almost 15% more on an annual basis. The individual profit reached BGN 40.383 million compared to BGN 24.271 million a year earlier, which is 66.4% more. In the last year, the shares of "Sopharma" became cheaper by more than 7%, and the market capitalization is more than 587.7 million BGN.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she sees a way to avoid a recession in the US after inflation has eased significantly and the economy has remained stable given the strength of the US labor market, Reuters reported. "We can't talk about a recession when we have 500,000 jobs added (in January, ed.) and the lowest unemployment rate in over 50 years," Yellen said. According to Janet Yellen, inflation is still too high, but it has declined in the past six months and could fall significantly, given the measures adopted by the administration of US President Joe Biden. They also include steps to reduce the cost of gasoline and prescription drugs.

China continues to exert control over the burgeoning technology sector, even if this thesis has been publicly rejected. As two of the most prominent targets of Beijing's tech crackdown, Tencent Holdings and Alibaba Group Holding were among those holding out the highest hopes for relief. Tencent received long-awaited licenses for its video games, while Alibaba affiliate Ant Group got the green light for its consumer lending unit. Even China's Communist Party chief for Zhejiang province visited Alibaba's headquarters in Hangzhou and pledged "unwavering" support for the e-commerce conglomerate. Even Swiss bank UBS, which welcomed the short-term easing, says Beijing's grip on the tech sector will only tighten in the long term as regulations will always try to catch up with innovation. The investment bank also expects there to be more regulations on Chinese short video platforms and the live streaming sector, as content is always a sensitive topic in China. There is also currently a change in the way Chinese power exercises and fulfills its desire for control. Until now, this was done through the imposition of penalties, suspensions, etc., but now members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are simply given seats on the board of directors of various enterprises. Stakes typically include a 1% stake and a board seat, providing a mechanism for the CCP to remain deeply engaged in the business over the long term. This is especially true for sites and companies involved in broadcasting some type of content. The e-commerce giant Alibaba, for example, recently had a new shareholder - a company that is linked to China's notorious internet regulator. People involved in the deal told the FT that the regulator took the bet to tighten control over video-sharing unit Youku and web browser UCWeb. Company documents from TikTok owner ByteDance show how the Chinese government's new approach works. After a fund linked to the internet regulator took a stake in its main Chinese unit in 2021, a party official joined the company's board. He was given the right to appoint the group's chief censor and chair a "content safety committee" within ByteDance.