Job offers in June this year decreased by 6 percent - about 3,000 fewer than in the previous month of May. However, they are 1% more compared to the same period in 2023, the career platform Job Tiger reports based on its monthly analysis of job vacancies. For the first time since the beginning of the year in the "IT" sector - 50 offers more, 2% growth. Weak growth, about 2 percent or with 100 more job offers in the "Logistics and Transport" sector. A moderate decrease is observed in the advertisements registered in the sectors "Marketing and advertising" - 20 offers less or a 2% drop, "Accounting, audit, finance" - 70 offers less or a 5 percent drop, "Administrative and service activities ” - 90 offers less or 2% drop, 6 percent drop or 150 ads less in “Healthcare and Pharmacy” and in the “Manufacturing” sector offers are 240 less or 3 percent drop. In all leading regional cities, offers decreased in June, a report by Job Tiger shows. In Sofia the drop is 4%, and in the other cities the drop is Plovdiv (-6%), Varna (-12%), Burgas (-14%), Ruse (-2%) and Stara Zagora (-3%). As a share distribution, Sofia holds 41 percent of the job advertisements, and in the other cities the distribution is - Plovdiv (10%), Varna (9%), Burgas (4%), Ruse (3%) and Stara Zagora (3%) . Employment in construction also decreased by 4 percent. The drop in job offers during the month is mainly due to the "Hospitality and Restaurant" sectors - with 2,100 fewer job offers and to "Trade and Sales", where there are 1,000 fewer job offers. In terms of supply by sector, on an annual basis, a decline was observed in the "IT" (-20%), "Construction" (-4%) and "Manufacturing" (-1%) sectors.

Bulgaria's aspiration to membership in the OECD and the explicit requirement to improve the management of state-owned companies does not particularly respect the authorities. On the boards of state-owned companies, appointments without competition continue en masse. This is shown in the annual report of the "Public Enterprises and Control Agency" on state-owned public enterprises for 2022. According to the data up to the end of December 2022, three out of three members of the "Information Service" board were elected without competition. 7 of the 7 members of the management of the state enterprise "Management and management of dams" did not go through the competition procedure. 5 out of 5 members of the board of "Bulgargaz" were also elected without competition. In the transport sector, 5 out of 5 members of "Holding Bulgarian State Railways", as well as 3 out of 3 members of the boards of "Sofia Airport" and "Plovdiv Airport", did not go through a public procedure. Competitions were not held for the management of any of the state companies under the Ministry of Sports, as here all board members - a total of 19 people in 5 companies - were elected without a competition. With the rules for implementing the law, it was practically possible to bypass the requirement for a competition with the possibility to appoint temporary holders for a period of up to 6 months. In 2022, state-owned enterprises reported a serious increase in revenues, with 171 of 265 state-owned enterprises reporting a net profit in the total amount of BGN 3.89 billion. Revenues from operating activities reached BGN 32.8 billion - nearly BGN 13 billion more than 2021, with the main contribution coming from the energy sector with total revenues from operating activities amounting to BGN 25.1 billion. The dividend paid into the state by public enterprises in 2022 is BGN 1.524 billion, with the vast majority of it is a payment from BEH - BGN 1.439 billion, including retained earnings from previous years.

The management of "Bulgargaz", appointed by the "Glavchev" cabinet, rescheduled for 3 years 37 million BGN of the awarded obligations of the "Varna" TPP, owned by the honorary chairman of the MFR Ahmed Dogan. This was reported by the investigative site BIRD, citing an agreement between the two parties concluded on May 31 of this year. The information comes a few days after it became clear that "Bulgargaz" is hiding information about whether TPP "Varna" EAD pays its debts, accumulated as unpaid installments for the supply of natural gas. Acting Minister of Energy Vladimir Malinov pointed out that the information concerns commercial relations between third parties and is defined by Bulgargaz EAD as a "trade secret".

Dundee Precious Metals (DPM) reported that its Bulgarian Ada Tepe mine delivered 49,100 ounces of gold in the first half of 2024. In the second quarter alone, the mine produced around 23,900 ounces of gold, in line with expectations of the company. Meanwhile, DPM's other Bulgarian mine, Chelopech, produced about 81,200 ounces of gold and 14.6 million pounds of copper in January-June. In the second quarter alone, about 43,700 ounces of gold and 7.9 million pounds of copper were mined from there, according to the Canadian company's preliminary data. For the full year, DPM expects total gold production from the two mines to be between 245,000 and 285,000 ounces, while copper production is forecast to be between 29 and 34 million pounds. The Ada Tepe and Chelopech mines are on track to meet their indicative targets for the year.

The municipal company "Meresev" in Stara Zagora will register as a social enterprise, announced the manager Mehmed Zeynel. 31 people are the current composition of the "Meresev" enterprise, of which 63% are in disadvantaged positions. Until now, "Meresev" has mainly focused on ishleme, which we will not give up, but we are oriented towards accepting orders that we will produce in full - for now only for the domestic market, but we have plans to go outside Bulgaria as well", he explained in detail manager Mehmed Zeynel. "Meresev" is about to be registered as a social enterprise. The company meets all the necessary criteria and it is only a matter of time to submit the documents to the MTSP and receive the documents.

"Severcoop - Gamza Holding" JSC expands its activities with a second issue of bonds. The first is from July 2018, for BGN 10 million and due in July 2026. Now it is about non-available, registered, freely transferable, interest-bearing, secured, non-convertible, ordinary bonds in the amount of the loan of BGN 26,000,000. The debt securities have a term of eight years (96 months) and a floating interest rate equal to the sum of 6-month EURIBOR + 1.25%, but not less than 3% and not more than 5 percent. The interest payment will be every 6 months or twice a year. The funds raised from the bond loan will be used by "Severcoop - Gamza Holding" to acquire majority and minority shares in the capital of commercial companies with the aim of consolidation in the group, exercising significant influence on their activities, improving the financial results of the holding company and portfolio investments. Another part of the money will be used to improve the capital structure of the holding company and its group companies by increasing the return on equity for shareholders. "Severcoop - Gamza Holding" JSC exercises direct control by owning more than half of the capital in two companies. One is "Imoti-S" JSC - Sofia, which carries out operations with real estate. The company is the full legal successor of the subsidiary companies "Perun" JSC and "Blatsa" JSC. The other is "Ustrem Holding" JSC - Sofia and specializes in investments in the field of metal products production, investments in electrical engineering, agriculture and the food industry. The holding has not paid dividends since 2007. "Severkoop - Gamza Holding" is the successor of the privatization fund "Severkoop - Gamza" JSC, which in 1998 was transformed into a holding company. Its capital is BGN 10,695,596, divided into 5,347,798 registered shares with a nominal value of BGN 2 each.

In April, compared to March, seasonally adjusted production in the services sector increased by 1.1 percent in both the euro area and the EU, data from the European statistics agency Eurostat showed. In March 2024, production in the services sector fell by 0.4 percent in the euro area and by 0.6 percent in the EU. In April 2024, on an annual basis, production in the services sector increased by 4.8 percent in the euro area and by 4.2 percent in the EU. In the euro area in April 2024, compared to March, the production of services shows that there is growth in the transport and storage and information and communication sectors - by 1.6 percent each, real estate operations by 0.3 percent, an increase for professional, scientific and technical activities by 2.4 percent, administrative and support services by 0.9 percent, and reporting a decrease for accommodation and food services by 1.6 percent. In the EU, the production of services recorded growth in the transport and storage sector by 1.4 percent, growth in information and communication by 1.6 percent, an increase in real estate operations by 0.9 percent, an increase in professional, scientific and technical activities by 2.6 percent, growth for administrative and auxiliary services by 0.8 percent and registered a decline in accommodation and catering services by 1.6 percent. Among the Member States for which data is available, the highest monthly increases were recorded in Croatia - a growth of 5.1 percent, Greece - 4.4 percent and France - 3.4 percent. The biggest decline was observed in Malta - 2.7 percent, Romania - 0.7 percent) and Finland - 0.6 percent. For April 2024, Bulgaria recorded a growth of 1.8 percent, compared to 0.3 percent in the previous month. In the euro area in April 2024, compared to the same period last year, the production of services marked growth in transport and storage by 3.6 percent, information and communication by 9 percent, professional, scientific and technical activities by 5.3 percent , as well as in administrative and auxiliary services by 4 percent, but recorded a decline in accommodation and catering services by 3.1 percent and in the real estate operations sector by 0.1 percent. In the EU, the production of services increased for transport and storage by 2.1 percent, growth for information and communication by 8 percent, an increase in real estate operations by 0.7 percent, an increase in professional, scientific and technical activities by 5 percent, growth in real estate operations by 0.7 percent, in administrative and auxiliary services growth by 3.3 percent, and the accommodation and catering services sector registered a decline by 2.9 percent. Among the Member States for which data are available, the highest annual increases were recorded in Luxembourg - an increase of 14.3 per cent, Malta - an increase of 10.1 per cent and Lithuania - 7.6 per cent. The biggest drop was observed in Romania - 5.3 percent, Denmark - 5 percent and Hungary - a drop of 3.9 percent. For the same period, on an annual basis, Bulgaria recorded a growth of 6 percent.

Economically speaking, immigration is far from America's worst problem. In fact, it is the fastest way to deal with pressing labor shortages and inflation. According to Apollo's Thorsten Slok, the foreign-born labor force has increased by 11% since February 2020, while the domestic labor force is flat. This means that all of the growth in the US labor force comes from immigration. In fact, migrants are a key reason why US inflation has not accelerated further and faster. As Goldman Sachs noted, immigration is the answer to "one of the biggest mysteries of the past year," namely why America has had both strong growth and lower inflation in recent years than any other rich country. Net immigration is at its highest level in two decades, especially in lower-wage sectors such as agriculture, construction, childcare and hospitality. Trade groups representing construction workers are pushing for immigration reform, as are groups representing restaurant and hotel workers. Such groups want more immigration across the socioeconomic spectrum, while policymakers over the past two decades have focused mostly on attracting more highly skilled immigrants to the US. Despite the rhetoric that immigrants are "taking" Americans' jobs, there is a complementarity between the two groups. Re-industrialisation in sectors such as manufacturing, where older workers have retired and there is little interest among young people, will exacerbate this trend.

India's central bank likely increased its gold reserves by the most in almost two years last month, according to an analyst at the World Gold Council (WGC). The Reserve Bank of India added more than nine tonnes in June, based on calculations using weekly data from the bank. This is the most since July 2022 and means India's reserves have increased by 37 tonnes this year to 841 tonnes. Central bank buying was a key driver of this year's bullion rally, which sent prices to a record high in May. The size of the purchases is a big focus and question mark for the market as they can be delayed or not fully accounted for. A large number of central banks still plan to buy gold next year, prompted by heightened geopolitical and financial risks that make owning the metal more attractive, according to a recent WGC survey. About 20 plan to increase their holdings, according to the survey, which did not disclose which countries they expect to buy. India has been a major buyer of gold in recent years, along with countries such as China and Turkey. The Reserve Bank of India also moved 100 tonnes of gold from the UK back into its domestic vaults. China's central bank did not buy gold for a second month in June as the price of the precious metal fell from a record high. Bullion held by the People's Bank of China was unchanged at 72.8 million troy ounces at the end of last month, according to official data released on Sunday. The central bank chose not to add to reserves in May, ending an 18-month buying spree that helped push gold prices to their highest levels ever. Rising gold prices may have deterred buying. The precious metal hit an all-time high above $2,400 an ounce in May and has fallen since then as investors reversed bets on a U.S. interest rate cut this year. When the PBOC released data on the buying pause in May, gold suffered its biggest intraday drop in nearly three years.