In April, prices of goods and services in Bulgaria decreased by 0.8% compared to a month earlier, according to data from the National Statistical Institute. Annual inflation in April also slowed to 3.5%. Since the beginning of the year, inflation has been 1.9%, and the average annual for the period May 2024 - April 2025 is 2.7%. For comparison, annual inflation of 3.8% was reported in January, and in February and March it remained at 4%. The average annual inflation in Bulgaria, measured according to the European methodology, which is used to assess the euro area, amounts to 2.7%. Thus, Bulgaria has practically been covering the price criterion for the euro for three months now. On a monthly basis, deflation (0.8%) was reported in April, with inflation of 0.2% in March, 0.6% in February and 2.0% in January. The accumulated inflation, measured by the Consumer Price Index, for the last three years (April 2025 compared to April 2022) is 18.3%, and for the last five years (April 2025 compared to April 2020) is 37.9%. According to the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP), in April the monthly inflation was -1.2%, and the annual one was 2.8%. The inflation since the beginning of the year (April 2025 compared to December 2024) is 1.3%, and the average annual inflation for the period May 2024 - April 2025 compared to the period May 2023 - April 2024 is 2.7%. The accumulated inflation, measured by the HICP, for the last three years (April 2025 compared to April 2022) is 16.2%, and for the last five years (April 2025 compared to April 2020) is 32.8%.

Bulgaria's economy is expanding by 3.1% compared to the first quarter of last year and by 0.6% compared to the fourth quarter of 2024, according to the flash estimates of the National Statistical Institute (NSI). This indicates a slight slowdown in the growth rate both on an annual and quarterly basis compared to the last three months of 2024. According to the spring macroeconomic forecast of the Ministry of Finance, Bulgaria's economic growth will reach 3% this year. From January to March, gross domestic product (GDP) in nominal terms reached 45.614 billion leva. The realized value added is 39.560 billion leva. In terms of final use elements, the largest share in GDP is taken by final consumption - with 85%, which in value terms amounts to 38.753 billion leva. Gross capital formation is 8.469 billion leva and occupies an 18.5% relative share in GDP. The foreign trade balance is negative.

A little over a year ago, Lufthansa Technik created a joint venture with local specialists, which places the Sofia joint venture Vaerolabs (as ViTech will soon be called - "ViTech Development") at the center of the complete digitalization of the German giant. And with a commitment to invest 100 million leva in the next five years. Lufthansa Technik has been working since 2021 with the then newly established Bulgarian IT company CleverPine, in which three well-known specialists and entrepreneurs are shareholders - Gaidarski, Georgi Litvinenko and Hristo Todorov. They applied for a public competition from the Germans and won it. The main goal of Lufthansa Technik is the complete digitalization of all processes in the group: from aircraft servicing, through activities such as making offers, managing inventory and materials, work schedules, etc. The group's ambition is that by 2028 the effect of digitalization on profit will be 300 million. euros, with at least 30-40% of the digital projects to be implemented internally, and the rest by external contractors. The joint company starts work in early January 2024 with a dozen specialists. Lufthansa Technik holds 75% of the Bulgarian company, and the remaining 25% are owned by the company behind CleverPine "KP Ventures", in which Gaidarsky, Litvinenko and Todorov are shareholders. Separately, CleverPine also continues to work on projects of the Germans as an external contractor.
A year and a half later, the Vaerolabs team has already developed two products for Lufthansa Technik: a credit platform that automates numerous processes and data in the Lufthansa Technik repair line, and a pricing, bidding and offer management system. The expected return on investment in the first year alone after the launch of these two products for the company is tens of millions of euros. Currently, Vaerolabs employs nearly 50 specialists, with the goal of reaching 90 in 2026. (CleverPine employs about 110 people) in a variety of roles - technical and program managers, software engineers, designers, so-called SecOps, etc. Vaerolabs' turnover last year was over 6 million euros. In fact, about 70% of these 100 million leva investments for the coming years will go mainly to salaries, i.e. for the expected increase in the team. Lufthansa Technik has been in Bulgaria for years with another "analog" joint venture. The German giant landed at Sofia Airport in 2008 after a partnership with the aviation arm of the Chimimport group, where it opened a unit for the so-called MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul) services in Europe. Over the years, the company has increased its capacity several times, increasing from 2 lines to 5 and subsequently to 8, i.e. it can simultaneously service 8 narrow-body aircraft. At the beginning of this year, the company employed over 1,300 people. The Sofia base is the largest for the group in Europe outside of Germany. In the meantime, the local company has also become a strategic hub for engineering services and logistics for the Lufthansa Technik group. The Sofia base serves the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. The focus is on narrow-body aircraft, which are of fundamental importance for Europe. Major customers include Lufthansa and Eurowings, EasyJet, Pegasus, Bulgaria Air, some leasing companies such as DAE, etc. The number of aircraft serviced at the base per year is around 100, with the routes being full.

Two of the companies collecting garbage in a third of Sofia have threatened to stop working because they are owed money by the municipality. The companies "Zauba" and "Green Partners", associated with businessman Rumen Gaitanski - Valka, claim that they will stop working from May 19 if the municipality continues to fail to pay them amounts on invoices issued from December 2024 to the present. The amount owed, according to the companies, was 9 million leva. The possible suspension of the companies' work will affect people in the districts of "Lyulin", "Krasno Selo", "Ilinden", "Nadezhda", "Serdika", "Izgrev", "Slatina" and "Poduyane". The two companies were recently accused by the Sofia Municipality of a scheme to drain the cleaning budget. The contracts with the two companies were concluded 5 years ago after a public procurement procedure. Previously, one of them - "Green Partners", practically cleaned Sofia without a contract with the municipality by renting equipment and people to the municipal company "Sofekostroy" (then "Iskar Cleanliness"). "Zauba"'s contract for "Lyulin" and "Krasno Selo" expired in April and was extended until a new public procurement for cleaning, which has not yet been announced. "Green Partners"'s contracts for the remaining areas are until the beginning of June and July, and the municipality will probably have to extend them.

The German manufacturer of cable systems for the automotive industry SE Bordnetze will lay off about 140 employees from its factory in the Romanian city of Targu Jiu, Agerpres reported. Earlier, the company announced that it was laying off 676 people from another location - in Drobeta Turnu Severin. SE Bordnetze is fully owned by Sumitomo Electric Bordnetze SE from Germany, with 41 factories in 13 countries. The company has three factories in Romania alone: ​​in Caransebes, in Drobeta Turnu Severin and in Targu Jiu. Revenue and profit for 2023 are growing, the latest published report shows. At the same time, the staff has been continuously decreasing from 2021 to the present, Economica.net indicates. SE Bordnetze currently has one factory in our country - in Karnobat. Its staff has decreased compared to last year. SEBN's other location in our country - in Mezdra, closed its doors at the end of last year and 950 people were left without jobs.

Eastern European Electric Company B.V. (EEEC), a sub-holding of Eurohold Bulgaria JSC and owner of the Electrohold Group, announced the successful completion of its first bond issue worth EUR 500 million, which marks a new stage in the company’s development and is of great importance for the entire energy sector in Bulgaria. The bonds are five-year, secured, issued in Reg S/144A format, their yield is fixed on May 8, 2025 and have an annual interest coupon of 6.500%. This is the first such international bond issue by a Bulgarian private company, making EEEC a pioneer in the country’s financial market. The successful completion of this transaction reflects the company’s strategic vision and ambitions to expand its presence in the international debt capital markets. In the course of the financial transaction, EEEC also received a debut credit rating from leading global rating agencies – Ba2 (stable outlook) from Moody's and BB (stable outlook) from Fitch. EEEC's bonds were acquired by over 60 investors from 17 countries, which clearly confirms the company's stable creditworthiness and high confidence in it. The price of the bonds was set at an annual yield for investors of 6,500%, which is 25-50 basis points below the initial price indications of 6,750% to 7,000%. The proceeds from the bond issue will be used to repay in full an existing syndicated loan and related expenses, for general corporate purposes, as well as to make payments under part of another loan agreement at the holding company level. The bonds were issued under the following terms: Total nominal value: 500 million euro Format: Reg S/144A Issue value: 100% of the nominal value of the bonds Maturity: May 15, 2030 Interest coupon: 6.500% per annum The bonds are expected to be listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, Euro MTF market segment The EEEC bonds were allocated on May 8, 2025, and settlement took place on May 15, 2025. Leading US investment bank J.P. Morgan is the bookrunner and lead manager of the issue, as well as its rating advisor.

The new terminals of Varna Airport and Burgas Airport are equipped with furniture manufactured by the Bulgarian furniture company K2 from Dobrich, which was given the task of making the new terminals for our country's entry into Schengen back in 2013. For the needs of the airport, a specific material must be used, the so-called mineral panels - Corian, and the factory must produce products in such huge quantities from it for the first time. The company was founded in 2007, it has long traditions as a continuation of the Bulgarian furniture company "Sequoia". Currently, K2 employs a little over 100 people, and the factory produces 6-7 tons of goods every week, or 1 per day. K2 does not have its own furniture brand, it is rather defined as a white label manufacturer. K2 manages to win every EU funding it applies for, which rejuvenates its machinery park to such an extent that most of the equipment is currently about 3 years old.

Foreign direct investment in Europe fell to a nine-year low in 2024, underscoring the continent’s struggle to attract business even before U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war darkened the economic outlook. The number of new projects backed by foreign investment fell for a second straight year to below levels seen even during the pandemic, according to an annual survey by consulting firm EY. The decline was sharpest in the largest economies, while the number of jobs created as a result of foreign investment also fell 16% from a year earlier. The decline came as persistently weak economic growth, high energy prices and geopolitical tensions came just as a surprisingly robust U.S. expansion and a surging stock market were attracting global cash. The number of European projects from the U.S. was 11% lower than in 2023 and 24% below 2022. However, there were also positives in the report, notably Spain, which saw a 15% increase in projects last year, becoming Europe’s fourth-largest hub for foreign investment. EY also said there were signs of momentum in some sectors, including renewable energy, semiconductors, defence, pharmaceuticals and electric vehicles.

The US government is set to announce one of the biggest cuts to bank capital requirements in a decade or more, the latest sign of the Trump administration’s desire to deregulate the economy, the Financial Times reported. Regulators are set to cut the supplementary leverage ratio (SLR) in the next few months, according to several people familiar with the matter. The rule requires large banks to hold a predetermined amount of high-quality capital relative to their total leverage, which includes assets such as loans and off-balance sheet exposures such as derivatives. The requirement was introduced in 2014 as part of sweeping reforms following the 2008-2009 financial crisis. Analysts say the move to cut the SLR would be a boon to the bond market, potentially helping Trump achieve his goal of lowering borrowing costs by allowing banks to buy more government debt. It would also encourage banks to play a bigger role in government securities trading, after the industry ceded positions to high-frequency traders and hedge funds under post-financial crisis rules. The eight largest U.S. banks are currently required to hold so-called Tier 1 capital — common equity, retained earnings and other items that absorb losses first — worth at least 5% of their total leverage. The largest European, Chinese, Canadian and Japanese banks are subject to a lower standard, with most requiring capital between 3.5% and 4.25% of their total assets. Most large U.S. banks are more constrained by other rules, such as the Federal Reserve’s stress tests and risk-adjusted capital requirements, which limits the extent to which they benefit from SLR reform. Morgan Stanley analysts recently estimated that only State Street was truly “constrained” by SLR. “Bringing U.S. rules into line with international standards would give big banks more capital capacity than exempting government bonds and central bank deposits from additional leverage ratio calculations,” said Sean Campbell, chief economist at the Financial Services Forum, a lobbying group that represents the eight largest U.S. banks.

The number of investment projects by American companies in Germany fell by 27 percent to 90 projects in 2024, marking the most significant decline among leading European destinations, according to a study by consulting firm EY, cited by DPA. The decline in American investment is far smaller in other countries, said Henrik Ahlers, head of EY's German office, with American projects falling by just 11 percent across Europe. The United States appears to be strengthening its domestic investment climate at the expense of Europe, EY said. For the first time, China overtook the United States as the largest foreign investor in Germany with 96 projects in 2024 - a slight decline of 3 percent from the previous year, according to the consulting firm. Germany remains the most popular European destination for Chinese companies. The total number of foreign investment projects in Germany fell 17 percent to 608 projects, the lowest level since 2011, with the country’s decline outpacing that of other major European economies. Across Europe, the number of new and expanded projects by international investors fell 5 percent to 5,383. France and Britain also saw declines but remained ahead of Germany in the overall ranking. Germany is perceived by investors as burdened by high taxes, labor costs, energy prices, bureaucracy and a sluggish economy.