From the first of July, the increase in pensions comes into force, affecting more than 2 million pensioners after the implementation of the set of planned measures - modernization of labor pensions by 11 percent, increase in the percentage of the supplement of the deceased spouse's pension, increase in the minimum amount of the pension for length of service and age, determining a new higher amount of the social pension for old age, increasing the minimum amounts of the other types of pensions and supplements linked to them. In the Law on the State Public Insurance Budget for 2024, BGN 1,110.7 million (BGN 185.1 million per month) is provided for the modernization and increase of pensions and supplements from July 1 by 11 percent. From July 1, 2024, the new minimum amount of the pension for length of service and age (Article 68, Paragraphs 1 and 2 of the Social Insurance Code) will be BGN 580.57. The increase is 11 percent compared to its amount until that date , which is BGN 523.04. The minimum amount of other types of pensions related to employment (disability, inheritance) is determined as a percentage of the stated minimum amount of the pension for length of service and age. An additional increase from July 1, 2024 will be received by those pensioners who, in the form of a supplement to their personal pension, receive part of their deceased spouse's pension. These are 675,000 people who receive the so-called "widow's allowance". The pension of the deceased, on the basis of which the supplement is determined, is modernized by 11 percent, but also increases from 26.5 to 30 percent the part of the pension that the surviving spouse will receive. Since 2011, this is the first increase in the percentage paid out of the full amount of the deceased spouse's pension. The amount of the social pension for old age is also subject to an increase from July 1, 2024 - from BGN 276.64 to BGN 307.07. This increase affects a number of other pensions and supplements, the amounts of which are determined as a percentage of the social pension for old age – military disability and civilian disability pensions, personal pensions, foreign aid supplement, etc. After July 1, 2024, the number of pensioners with a monthly amount of pensions and supplements below the poverty line of BGN 526 will decrease from 524,700 to 324,800 people.

The National Statistical Institute reported that days before the deadline, just under half a million enterprises (495,582) submitted data for 2023, including working and "sleeping" companies. Companies from the second group have zero income and expenses, and instead of activity reports, they only submit declarations that they were inactive (or that their turnover for the entire year was below BGN 500). It turns out that more than 80,000 such declarations have been submitted to the NSI so far - that is, every sixth enterprise in Bulgaria was inactive last year. It is significant that every year 30,000-50,000 new enterprises are established in Bulgaria, and only 10% of them survive to the second year. According to data from the Registration Agency, for the first half of 2023, there were 16,492 liquidation proceedings that have not been concluded, and nearly half of them - 8,170 - have been going on for more than 5 years.

Coffee remains one of Bulgarians' favorite drinks in 2023, with sales in value outpacing inflation and growing by 12% compared to a year earlier. This was mainly due to an increase in the price per kilogram (16%), while the quantity sold in kilograms fell by 4% over the same period. This ranks it second in terms of sales value in the food and beverage market and establishes it as a core consumer category. In the past year 2023, the coffee market is estimated at just over 10 million kg and at almost BGN 470 million. The top 5 coffee producers in terms of sales value according to NIQ data include (in alphabetical order): "Balkam group", "Luigi Lavazza SPA", "Nestle", "Tchibo Bulgaria" and "Jacobs Dow Egberts BG", which realize nearly 80% of retail sales in 2023. Grocery stores remain the leading sales channel for the "Coffee" category , increasing their share of sales in value by 1% compared to 2022. Together with them, the "Restaurants" channel is growing most significantly in terms of value and volume. A decline as a share, but not in absolute value, was noted by cafes, which serve for the sales of 18% of the category. Liquor stores, neighborhood stores and gas stations, on the one hand, and kiosks, on the other, did not change their share of total sales and kept 1% ​​each, which means that they proportionally follow the growth of the category in value. For grocery stores, the trends from 2022 are maintained in 2023 as well, with organized stores continuing to have the greatest and most distinct importance with a combined share of 68% of sales in value. The most significant share is occupied by hyper- and supermarkets over 300 square meters, in which 61% of the category is sold. Traditional trade accounts for 32% of the retail turnover, with the most significant being the 40 - 100 sq.m. shops, followed by small shops under 40 sq.m. In terms of pack size, single doses enjoyed the highest volume sales (20.2%), followed by standard cuts of 200 (15.8%) and 250g (14.4%). The highest revenue was generated by the 1 kg packages (25.2% of sales in value), which represent the coffee bean segment. In the analysis of coffee sales, 3 main segments are considered: coffee beans, ground coffee and instant coffee. Ground coffee has the largest share of sales in value (40.5%), followed by instant coffee (33.6%) and coffee beans (26%). Due to its lower price, instant coffee has a smaller value share, but realizes higher volumes. In contrast, coffee beans are characterized by their higher price. It is specific to him that his main market is the horeka channel (86.3%) and in particular the cafes (figure 4). For ground and instant coffee, these are grocery stores (respectively 83.5% and 87.3%). Kiosks, liquor stores and neighborhood stores (summarized under the abbreviation PAU) account for the smallest share of sales, while also recording a slight decline in volume and value over the past year. According to the NIQ data, in 2023, the price of ground coffee in the Khoreka channel increased the most - by 36.4%. With a smaller step, but significantly, the price of coffee beans also increases for the same channel (19.7%). The price of the three coffee segments increased proportionally in the grocery store channel, with the change ranging from 17.8 to 19%. Promotions continued to be a key driver last year as well, with promotion sales in modern trade accounting for 52.3% of the total (down 1% from 2022). The average discount for price reductions has maintained its size since 2022, as a kilogram of coffee per promotion cost BGN 2.35 less.

The world manufacturer of armored vehicles International Armored Group (IAG), owned by the Bulgarian entrepreneur Dr. Anton Stefov, will open a new plant in Bulgaria on October 1, 2024 in Burgas. The plant will produce Bulgarian defense equipment according to NATO standards, with Bulgarian specialists. The production base is located on an area of ​​150,000 sq.m. in the industrial zone of Burgas. Construction began in September 2023. Its contractor is Glavbolgarstroy - Plovdiv. In the past year, IAG was certified as a class A investor, and the state and the municipal administration of the city of Burgas committed themselves to the construction of technical and supply infrastructure. The plant will produce for global markets both armored vehicles and drones for rescue, reconnaissance and emergency teams in cooperation with IAG's Bulgarian partners. Military evacuation cranes and light patrol cars will also be in series production, as in other IAG plants around the world. In the project is the development of wheeled and tracked robots, and in the process of engineering calculations - armored platforms, carriers of light artillery systems. The Rila 8x8 infantry fighting vehicle stands out in the portfolio of Dr. Anton Stefov's first Bulgarian plant. IAG demonstrated its fourth generation at the "Central Artillery Range - MO", where it successfully passed NATO tests - STANAG 4569 with explosion protection level 5a. Stefov noted that the enterprise will produce products according to the highest NATO standards, at a time when quality defense equipment is a first necessity. IAG's initial investment is expected to exceed BGN 20 million. About 50 new Bulgarian specialists will start the future production, and in the course of the work it is expected to become at least 300.

Following a decision of the Minister of Energy and a decision of the Board of Directors (BoD) of "Bulgarian Energy Holding" EAD, Valentin Nikolov and Galina Todorova were elected as executive directors of the holding. Galina Todorova is a lawyer by education. She has over 15 years of experience experience in the energy industry and worked in the energy industry as director of the Legal Department at "Toplofikatsia Sofia" EAD and "Bulgartransgaz" EAD Ivan Andreev and Diyan Dimitrov, who vacated their seats on the Board of Directors of BEH EAD, occupy positions on the Board of Directors respectively. Kozloduy NPP and Maritsa East 2 TPP Jivko Dinchev was dismissed from the Board of Directors of Maritsa East 2 TPP.

One participant appeared at the auction for the unfinished buildings in Plovdiv of the "Bulgarian Development Bank" (BDB). We remind you that the state bank announced the properties for sale in May at an initial auction price of BGN 33,016,200 excluding VAT. In this case, it is a matter of land in Plovdiv with an area of ​​6994 sq.m. with several unfinished buildings in it. The place is next to the "Kolodruma" sports hall. The buildings were acquired by BDB in 2015 from realized collateral after loan defaults and actions taken to protect BDB's interests. Only one player appeared at the auction - the company "Resource Fund" Ltd. It bid once with the corresponding step of BGN 660,324. Thus, the price was reached BGN 33,676,524 without VAT. "Resource Fund" is headquartered in Sofia and managed by Petar Yordanov Gospodinov. Shares in the company are held by three other companies, as well as Petar Gospodinov as an individual. The majority shareholder with a share of over 73% is "Adoria Trade" Ltd, whose manager and sole owner of the capital is a person named Nikolay Kirilov Dimitrov. Over 26.4% is owned by the company "Central Capital Development". Sportland JSC has a 0.18% share in Resource Fund. And Petar Gospodinov has 0.0012%. Clubz

The first Lidl store in Kavarna opened its doors on June 29. Thus, there are already 129 branches of the chain throughout the country, and 56 populated places where it is present. The investment in it is nearly BGN 11.5 million. The branch will employ 19 people, and during the summer season the number of employees will reach 36.

The general meeting of shareholders, "AmonRa Energy" JSC, decided to distribute a dividend of BGN 1.5 million to the shareholders. The dividend amount is formed from the profit of "AmonRa Energy" for 2023 in the amount of BGN 1,046,970.93 and part of the undistributed profit for past years in the amount of BGN 557,726.16. BGN 104,697.84 was set aside as a reserve, according to the documents published on the exchange's website. This is the second year in a row that the company has distributed a dividend. In 2023, the company will start making deliveries of photovoltaic panels, inverters and structures from a warehouse in Shumen. Last year, "AmonRa Energy" acquired its main distributor in Romania in order to more seriously expand its activities there.

The shareholders of "Industrial Capital Holding" JSC have approved the distribution of a dividend in the amount of BGN 0.10526 per gross share at a general meeting held on June 28. The total amount that will be paid to the shareholders as a dividend amounts to just under BGN 1.7 million, coming from the profit for 2023. Nearly BGN 1.6 million is classified as retained earnings. The company will start paying the dividend from August 22 this year. The dividend payment term is six months, i.e. until January 22, 2025. The amounts will be paid through "Eurobank Bulgaria" (Postbank) and the Central Depository. The shareholders of "Industrial Capital Holding" released Dimitar Tanovski, Ivan Delchev, Milko Angelov, Georgi Bochev and Tsoko Savov from the board of directors. "Denide" Ltd. with manager Ivan Delchev, "Profi' T" Ltd. with manager Dimitar Bogomilov Tanovski, "MANG" Ltd. represented by Milko Angelov, as well as Anna Milkova Angelova-Maki, Dimitar Dimitrov were elected as new members of the board of directors. Tanovski and Deyan Ivanov Delchev. Alexander Stefanov, Nikolay Tsvetanov, Nikolay Nikolov were elected as independent members of the board of directors.

The widening transatlantic gap inspires joy in the US and alarm in Europe. Despite having similar levels of per capita income a few decades ago, since 2010 growth has been twice as fast in the US as in the UK and the big 4 EU economies - Germany, France, Italy and Spain. Ruchir Sharma, chairman of Rockefeller International, wrote this for the Financial Times. Sharma explains Europe's backwardness by the role of governments in capitalist economies, whose intervention is expanding most notably in Europe. Until the 1980s, government spending was on average lower in the UK and the EU's Big 4 than in the US. Europe is spending a lot more now, notes Sharma, whose new book is called What's Wrong with Capitalism. "The burden of a huge state crushes productivity growth, which is key to growing prosperity," adds Sharma. He estimates that since the post-war peaks in the 1960s, productivity growth has collapsed from almost 7% to less than zero in the EU's Big 4. In the US, it has also fallen, but less dramatically, from 2.5% to about 1%, probably thanks to technological superiority. UK data starts earlier. Going back to 1690, the UK never ran a peacetime deficit until the 1970s, Sharma points out. After that, however, the country ran a deficit for the next 50 years except for five of them. The Reagan-Thatcher "revolution" of the 1980s only changed the way the state financed its expansion by borrowing rather than taxing. Public debt has tripled in the UK and the EU's Big 4 to average around 100% of GDP, notes the author, who led the emerging markets team and was then chief global strategist at Morgan Stanley Investment Management . Higher government spending leaves less room for private competition and initiative, Sharma points out. Central bank purchases of bonds and other assets have risen from almost zero at the start of the new millennium to record highs in 2020, reaching 16% of GDP in the US and 22% in the EU's Big 4. “As the 'cleansing effect' of recessions wore off, incumbents thrived. Corporate profits rose in part because of oligopoly pricing. Since 2000, sales in most industries have concentrated in the largest companies - less rapidly in Europe than in the US on this front, Ruchir Sharma also commented. Markets, increasingly distorted by easy money and government bailouts, have spawned "zombie" companies that don't earn enough to even cover interest payments on their debt. Recent figures show that zombies make up at least 10% of public companies in developed markets - up to 20% in the US and 22% in the UK. These are levels rarely seen before the 1980s, Sharma wrote. Partly because of its lack of spending power, the "Eurocracy" turned its energies to what has been described as a "global regulatory hegemon," Sharma continues. Any company with ambitions in Europe must meet standards set by the most powerful countries, Germany and France, on everything from carbon emissions to milk production, the author notes. Faced with both continental and national bureaucracy, it is not surprising that Europeans are more likely than Americans to cite regulation as a major obstacle to starting or expanding a business. Many of Germany's mid-sized companies say they are considering closing, citing "too much red tape and higher taxes." Many French companies do not dare to grow to avoid facing the costly rules that apply to companies with more than 50 employees. The modest progress of the European economy still leaves risks of fiscal shocks. Heavy regulation thus creates a business environment that favors the mega-firms with the most money and lawyers, Sharma points out. By the time the pandemic hit, startups were shrinking as a share of all companies in many industrialized countries, including the UK, Spain and Italy. By favoring giant companies, governments increase the wealth of corporate founders, including established billionaires. Because the ultra-rich own the lion's share of financial assets, they stand to gain the most when the state rushes in to stop even minor market shocks, Sharma said. They are finding it increasingly difficult to make money there as the country's growth slows and overcapacity pressures increase.In recent decades, billionaire wealth has grown faster as a share of GDP in the UK and the EU's Big 4 than in the US. France now has both an unusually bloated government, with spending equal to 58% of GDP, and an unusually dominant billionaire class, whose combined wealth equals 22% of GDP, outstripping even the US. This, according to Sharma, further illuminates the transatlantic divide. "Add in the productivity losses from oligopolies, zombies, bureaucracy, inequality, and other market distortions fueled by big government, which, taken together, could explain the productivity slowdown," he writes, adding, "The burden of big government outweighs the push from new technologies, especially in Europe and the United Kingdom. The twist is that US President Joe Biden is driving a long expansion of US spending, debt and regulation. The country's deficit, until recently typical of a Western nation, is expected to exceed an average of more than 6% of GDP in the coming years - a much higher level than the UK and the EU's Big 4. So the US is about to replace Europe as the country with the most government intervention - and slower growth.

Oil production in Canada is booming. Manufacturers are ramping up projects amid greater market access. The Trans Mountain expansion project, now finally up and running after years of delay, is changing the fortunes of the so-called producers. oil sands in Alberta, giving them access to markets in Asia and the US West Coast, Oilprice writes. Restricted for years, Canadian oil now has nearly 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) of additional market access. The expanded Trans Mountain pipeline triples the capacity of the original pipeline to 890,000 barrels per day from 300,000 barrels per day to carry crude oil from Alberta to British Columbia on the Pacific coast. Manufacturers take advantage of this. They began ramping up production late last year in anticipation of the start of the Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX) in the first half of this year. The increase in oil sands production is the result of expanding operational projects with existing infrastructure, so capital costs, which are very high for this type of crude oil production, are lower than when building projects from scratch. Canada's oil sands output surge, largely thanks to the Trans Mountain Expansion, makes the country one of the biggest non-OPEC+ contributors to rising global supply this year, along with the United States, Guyana and Brazil. According to some analyst forecasts, Canada could be the biggest source of growth in oil supplies, even overtaking the US or Guyana. "Barring any unforeseen circumstances, Canada could be the largest source of increased oil supply in the world in 2024," Mark Ercolao, an economist at TD Economics, said in a report this year. This year, Canada's production growth could be between 300,000-500,000 barrels per day, "putting the country in the race to be the biggest source of growth in global oil supply," Ercolao said. Forecasts for global oil supply growth vary, but Canadian oil could account for 25-67% of additional supply in 2024, the economist noted. The Trans Mountain Expansion is expected to raise the price of heavy crude oil in Canada for years to come, executives at major energy companies say. Crude oil production is growing in Western Canada, with Alberta reaching a record production high of 4.53 million barrels per day in December 2023. TMX could increase total crude oil export pipeline capacity in Western Canada by 13%, helping easing capacity constraints on export pipelines, the regulator noted last month. Overall, the capacity of the Trans Mountain pipeline will represent 17% of the total pipeline export capacity available to Canadian crude oil carriers. Shares of Canada's four largest oil sands producers have risen 37% over the past 12 months, while the index of the largest U.S. oil and gas companies has lagged that gain by 19 percentage points. Although oil sands projects are more expensive and take years to start up, they can pump crude oil for years and decades, unlike US shale formations.

China publishes list of rare earth rules. They are aimed at protecting supplies for national security purposes, Reuters informs. The rules set out how to trade, mine and melt the critical materials used to make magnet products in electric vehicles (EVs) for consumer electronics. China's State Council or Cabinet has declared that rare earth resources are owned by the state. As well as that the government will oversee the development of the rare earth industry - a group of 17 minerals in the production of which China has become a world leader in recent years. The country accounts for almost 90% of the world's refining production. Such is the global importance of rare earths to industry that, under legislation that came into effect in May, the EU has set ambitious 2030 targets for the domestic production of minerals that are crucial to the green transition. This is mainly because they are used in the permanent magnets that power electric vehicle motors and in wind power. According to forecasts, European demand will grow 6-fold by 2030 and 7-fold by 2050. New Chinese rules, which take effect on October 1, require the State Council to establish an information system to track rare earth minerals. Enterprises engaged in the mining, smelting and separation of rare earth elements and the export of rare earth element products must establish a product flow reporting system and must "truthfully" record this flow and enter it into the tracking system, says the State advice. Last year, China already imposed export restrictions on germanium and gallium, widely used in the chip-making sector. The authorities cited the need to protect national security and interests. In addition, China banned the export of rare earth magnet technology and also banned the extraction and separation technology of rare earth metals. The rules fuel concerns that restrictions on supplies of rare earths could heighten tensions with the West, particularly the United States, which accuses China of using economic coercion to influence other countries. Beijing denies these allegations. As China introduces regulations on rare earth elements, the EU is preparing to impose preliminary tariffs on Chinese electric cars from July 4. The aim is to prevent an influx of electric vehicles produced with unfair government subsidies, although both sides have said they plan to negotiate the proposed tariffs.