According to Eurostat data, by 2022 the population of Bulgaria reached 62% of the average levels for the European Union of GDP per capita in terms of purchasing power, which is a growth of 12% for the last five years. The indicator describes the process of catching up with average European incomes and living standards, taking into account price differences between individual countries. According to the comparisons in the analysis, Bulgaria achieves this growth against the background of 13 percent in Romania and 10 percent in Lithuania and Poland.

The import of fresh fruits and vegetables in Bulgaria continues to increase, as for the eight months of last year, nearly 202.5 thousand tons of vegetables and almost 255 thousand tons of fresh fruit were imported into the country, according to the data of the Ministry of Agriculture. Of the vegetables, the largest import is tomatoes - over 66 thousand tons from January to August, and compared to the same period of 2022, the quantities increased by 7.2%, and the value of the imported production grew by almost 16 percent. More than half of the imported tomatoes are Turkish, or 35.4 thousand tons, and nearly 17 thousand tons come from Greece. The quantities of tomatoes we imported from Albania and Hungary have more than doubled in a year. A boom is also reported in imports from Romania - by more than 10 times per year. Over 32,000 tons of potatoes are imported into our country, with the largest quantities - over 10,000 tons each coming from France and Greece, and the import from our neighbor is 123% higher than the previous year. The import of potatoes from Poland also increased seven times, with the quantities reaching nearly 3 thousand tons. In the case of cucumbers, the import amounted to 17.67 thousand tons, increasing by 24.4% for the year, and its value grew by 66.4 percent. the biggest deliveries are Greece - 12.47 thousand tons, and here too the quantities from Romania - 9 times and from Spain - twice are increasing seriously. 20,700 tons of pepper were also imported to our country, with over 14,000 tons coming from Turkey, the Ministry of Agriculture also reports. For a year, the import grew by 13.6 percent, and only that from Turkey - by nearly 25 percent. Among fruits, the largest import is watermelons - almost 40,000 tons for the period from January to August this year, and compared to the same period last year, it decreased by 15.2 percent. Half of the supplies of watermelons come from Greece, and over 16,000 tons come from Turkey. In the case of apples, imports from Poland predominate - almost 12 thousand tons out of a total of 27.2 thousand tons. Over 7.4 thousand tons of apples were imported from North Macedonia, and almost 4 thousand tons from Greece. Almost 90% of the apricots and strawberries imported to our country are Greek, and 80% of the peaches. Almost 90 percent are cherries imported from Turkey.

Forty-five million BGN has already been reimbursed to the account of the State Consolidation Company (SCC) by the company that was entrusted with the implementation of the project for the unrealized government complex. This was commented by the Minister of Economy and Industry Bogdan Bogdanov. With the return of this amount, as well as with other recovered funds, SCC will repay at least BGN 90 million of its obligations to the Bulgarian Development Bank (BDB), which will stop the payment of tens of millions of interest, the collateral of the pledged public enterprises, including LB Bulgaricum EAD, Kintex EAD, Niti EAD, and others. "This is how we will guarantee the future development of the companies, as well as the jobs of the 5,500 people employed in them", he explained. In the period 2016-2022, SCC absorbed credit funds from BBR for over 152 million BGN, and so far more than BGN 22 million in interest on them. All necessary actions to protect the state interest and to recover the financial damages generated in previous years are continuing. In addition to the unrealized government complex, they include the losses for the repairs and reconstructions of the dams concerning unlawfully spent funds by "Montazhi" EAD, as well as the framework agreement for the acquisition of receivables and equity participations between SCC and "Kemira" trading company.

9 car carriers of the Japanese giant Kawasaki Kise Kaisha ("K" Line) from this year will be managed by the Varna-based company "Stargate Bulgaria". Founded in 1919, "K" Line is among the giants of Japanese shipping with a fleet of about 500 vessels and revenues of approximately $7 billion annually. The carrier has been on the Bulgarian market for 26 years through its company for consulting and selection of maritime specialists "Stargate Maritime". As of 2008, it had 260 Bulgarian officers and 49 trainees and cadets working on board the ships of the "K" Line. "The consulting and selection of maritime specialists is carried out by the company "Stargate Maritime" Ltd, and "Stargate Bulgaria" Ltd will be the company that will carry out the management of the ships. Of course, as the number of ships increases, the number of officers that will be necessary for safe operation," the company said. From 2025, it will take over the management of LNG-powered ships and also "there are plans for ammonia and nitrogen ships after 2026". A week later - on January 12, the Japanese ambassador H.E. Michigami Hisashi and representatives of the top management of the Japanese corporation will attend the opening of a new office of "Stargate Bulgaria" in Varna.

The turnover of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) decreased by almost 22% in 2023 on an annual basis to just over BGN 784.2 million, after exceeding BGN 1 billion in 2022. In December alone, the turnover was almost BGN 104.9 million, which is more than double the turnover in November and almost 19% more compared to December 2022 (BGN 88.176 million). Two-thirds of the turnover of BSE-Sofia in December (66.52%), or nearly BGN 69.8 million, was formed by transactions with shares on the alternative market. The "Standard" segment followed with 16.7%, or BGN 17.52 million, and the "Premium" segment with 14.63%, or over BGN 15.34 million. BGN 1.57 million, or 1.49% of turnover in December, was generated from transactions with foreign shares on the BSE International segment. The market for small and medium-sized enterprises beam contributed with only 688.7 thousand BGN turnover in December, or 0.66% of the total for the month. 5,655 deals were concluded on the stock exchange in December, which is 5.72% more than in November. However, the number of deals concluded in 2023, on an annual basis, decreased by a little over 33%, the stock exchange reports.

The contract for the purchase and sale of the land on which the new hospital in Kardzhali will be built will be signed on January 8. This will take place in the Business Incubator. The two plots of land in Arpezos-Sever Park, on which the Heart and Brain Hospital will be built, will be sold for BGN 2,980,827. The transaction is subject to VAT, and the amount is exclusive of taxes and fees, which are for the account of the buyer "Trade League - Global Pharmacy Center" JSC. The company received the "Investor Class A" certificate and has the right to acquire the land with the preferences due to a top investor. The two properties have a total area of 37,068 square meters. The company's investment in them amounts to BGN 15 million. An area of 29,968 square meters is planned for a health care complex, and 7,100 square meters for accompanying health and educational activities. The construction of the hospital complex is expected to start in the spring of this year. and be completed within two years.

"Sopharma Imoti" REIT has repaid ahead of schedule the balance of a bank loan granted by "DSK Bank" JSC in 2014. Repayment took place on January 3, 2024, and the due interest has also been paid. The loan agreement was concluded on July 29, 2014. The amount of the loan is EUR 22,619,338 million. Another loan from 2011 for the construction of Sopharma Business Towers was refinanced with the funds. At the time of signing the contract, an annual regular interest rate of 3,050 percentage points is foreseen, formed by three-month EURIBOR plus an agreed allowance of 2,850 percentage points. The regular repayment term of the loan is July 29, 2024. In the last year, the shares of "Sopharma Imoti" became cheaper by more than 7%, and the market capitalization is slightly below BGN 187.7 million.

The former "Peter Chengelov" OZ, known as "Flavia" Plant, was privatized at the end of 1997 and its work continued until 2015, when it closed in bankruptcy. After a 5-year standstill at the end of December 2019, the "Siven" group began to manage and renovate it. It is known for manufacturing clothes, but it also deals with industrial properties, which it changes its purpose. Now the plant has a new look and purpose. Flavia Business Park is a project for the transformation of the shoe factory in Plovdiv into a modern complex in the southern part of the city with direct access to the Center and the Ring Road, which contains offices, shops, warehouses, restaurants, production, sports, services and accommodation. The parameters of the complex are 12 buildings with an area of 23,000 m², leasable area of 6,000 m², commercial areas of 3,000 m², green areas and recreational areas. The owner of the new business park is Boyan Venev, on whose idea "Flavia" was revived.

The weakening of business activity in the Eurozone continued into late 2023 due to the sustained decline reported in the services sector. This is a sign that the currency area's economy has been in recession, according to the latest business confidence data from a Hamburg Commercial Bank (HCOB) survey compiled by Standard & Poor's Global (S&P Global). . The final composite PMI, considered a good indicator of the overall state of the economy, was revised up by 0.6 percentage points for December to 47.6. Still, the indicator remained below the 50-point mark that separates growth from contraction in the sector for the seventh month in a row. This is an indication that the economy of the 20 countries using the single European currency is likely to contract again in the final, fourth quarter of 2023. Thus, the eurozone economy will fall into a technical recession, as the third quarter recorded a contraction of gross domestic product by 0.1 percent. At the same time, the Eurozone services PMI rose to a five-month high, from 48.7 in November to 48.8 in December. The index has remained in negative territory since August 2023. Although the decline in demand for services eased slightly last month, the corresponding subindex rose to a five-month high of 47.1 points in December, remaining below 50 points for the sixth consecutive month.

US bankruptcy filings to rise 18% in 2023 amid higher interest rates, tighter lending rules and continued withdrawal of pandemic safeguards, though bankruptcies remain well below pre-pandemic levels from COVID-19. The total number of bankruptcy filings, which includes the failure of companies and individuals, increased to 445,186 last year compared to 378,390 in 2022, according to data from Epiq company AACER. Chapter 11 filings by companies jumped 72 percent to 6,569, compared to 3,819 a year earlier, the report said. Consumer filings rose 18% to 419,555, compared with 356,911 in 2022. For the final month of the year, the total number of bankruptcy filings fell to 34,447, compared with 37,860 in November, although it increased by 16% on an annual basis. Bankruptcy cases are expected to continue to rise in 2024, though they would hardly exceed the reported 757,816 bankruptcy filings in 2019, the year before the pandemic began. Household debt was actually at a record high of $17.3 trillion. dollar at the end of the third quarter, according to data from the Federal Reserve in New York. Loan arrears are also increasing, but remain below pre-pandemic levels. Financial conditions for companies and households have also tightened significantly over the past two years as the Fed has aggressively raised interest rates to curb inflation. Mortgage rates, for example, surge in the second half of 2023 to their highest levels since the turn of the century. With that in mind, borrowing costs and overall financial conditions eased in the fourth quarter of 2023 after the Fed signaled an end to the rate-hiking cycle, and Fed officials last month said they expected a rate cut this year.

For the third year in a row, Chinese shipyards have taken first place in the world in terms of new vessel orders in 2023. During the year, shipyards in China received orders for new ships totaling 24.46 million compensated gross tons (CGT), or 59 percent of new orders globally last year. This was reported by the Yonhap agency, citing data from Clarkson Research Services. By comparison, in 2022, Chinese shipyards won 55.2 percent of global new orders. China topped new ship orders globally in 2021 and 2022 as well, taking the lead from South Korea, which topped the list in 2018, 2019 and 2020. This year, too, South Korea ranks behind China in new orders received for ships. South Korean shipbuilders received ship orders totaling 10.01 million offset gross tons, which accounted for 24 percent of global new orders. In 2023, however, South Korean shipyards surpassed their Chinese rivals in terms of new orders for high-end LNG carriers. Their LNG tanker orders totaled 4.41 million offset gross tons last year, corresponding to a market share of 80 percent. The remaining 20 percent, or orders for 1.13 million compensated gross tons, went to Chinese companies.