A total of BGN 2.16 billion is the financial aid for the agricultural sector in Bulgaria in 2023 - European and national funds, under all schemes and measures to support agriculture at the beginning of September. This amount does not include BGN 736 million direct area subsidies (so-called SEPP) from Campaign 2022, which were already paid out at the end of last year. With them, direct support (European with national co-payment) for the sector exceeds BGN 1.62 billion, and other measures with state funding exceed BGN 1 billion this year. A similar amount per area (perhaps smaller) will also be paid at the end of this year. Annually, more than BGN 2.5 billion is directed to local farmers. The funds for 2023 (without the aid per unit area paid in the fall of 2022) are distributed 2 to 1 in favor of the "Crop farming" sector - BGN 1.33 billion, compared to " Livestock" - BGN 626 million. The differences in direct payments are the largest, since the main payments are per unit of cultivated/used area. Grain-oil farms are proverbially benefited along this line. But this year they also receive a total of over BGN 200 million in line with other payments - for example, this is twice as much as the "Fruits" sector and four times as much as the "Vegetables" sector. For the grain sector, there is the largest support along the lines of market measures, they also receive the largest amount of state aid - BGN 116 million as of September 1. The so-called direct payments are the main instrument of the Common Agricultural Policy to support farmers. Its two largest components - the payment per unit of area (which is traditionally paid already at the end of the campaign year and is not included in the table) and the so-called green payments (practices that are favorable to the environment) are distributed among more than 54 thousand farms. Traditionally, the largest part of them goes to crop production and especially grain production, where the largest farms are. Livestock breeders, as well as the fruit, vegetable and protein crop sectors, receive direct aid, the size of which is tied to production - this is the so-called tied support, which is distributed almost equally to both sectors - BGN 110 million for vegetable crops and BGN 123 million for animals. In this case, dairy farmers are the most supported. Young farmers are also supported with about BGN 25 million per year through direct payments. Market measures are emergency interventions to stabilize agricultural markets in times of market crises. State aid is a particularly solid source of support for the sector. This column includes, for example, excise duty discounts for fuel used in the agricultural sector - about BGN 100 million per year, tax reliefs for agricultural producers, the minimum state aid for agriculture, also known as de minimis, which are provided to farmers at specific crisis situations on the market, etc. Livestock breeders are the main beneficiaries of the so-called Transitional National Aid with a budget of BGN 58 million - these are funds from the national budget with which cattle and sheep/mother goat farms are additionally supported. In the end, state payments to the sector this year will be over BGN 800 million, and if national additional payments to European subsidies are included, the sum will exceed a billion.

The state fund "Agriculture" has paid BGN 65.5 million of the extraordinary financial aid to 11,550 sunflower producers. Half of the money is provided by the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund to support farmers and the other half is national funding. The aim is to compensate the farmers who suffered from the increased import of agricultural products from Ukraine.

The Commission for the Protection of Competition (CPC) received a notification from the pharmaceutical company Sopharma Trading about the plans to acquire companies for wholesale and retail trade in medicinal products - "Apteka - Lyubka Georgieva" Ltd and "Royal Farmasi" Ltd, "Pharma-24" Ltd and "Pinbau" Ltd. It recently became clear that the largest company by revenue in the "Pharmacy" sector in Bulgaria has reached an agreement and consent to acquire 9 pharmacies from the "Royal Pharmacies" chain. They are located in the area of Sofia, Pernik, Dupnitsa and Radomir, and the company plans to join the SOpharmacy family after the transaction is completed. For more than 15 years, Sopharma Trading has been a leader in the pharmaceutical market in Bulgaria. Since 2015, the company has been developing its own SOpharmacy retail concept. At the moment, over 200 pharmacies operate under the SOpharmacy brand in more than 40 cities in the country. Royal Pharmacy has been operating in the pharmacy market in Bulgaria for more than 10 years, currently uniting 11 sites in the cities of Sofia, Pernik, Dupnitsa and Radomir. A ruling on the transaction is pending from the Commission for the Protection of Competition. In the months leading up to its legal closure, the two chains will continue to operate independently.

"Port Varna" will invest BGN 40 million of its own funds for the modernization of its terminals over the next three years, announced the executive director of "Port Varna" EAD Ivaylo Gavrailov. The investment will improve the material base in the "Varna - East" and "Varna - West" ports. In "Varna-Iztok" closed type warehouses - silos with appropriate lanes will be built to avoid dust and to be able to load ships in a modern way. For "Varna - West" port, the technological processes for processing grain will be changed. Five silos have been licensed for receiving cargo under customs control, which will allow receiving transit grain, the director of the port also said, expressing expectations that serious ship loading norms will be achieved.

The Kaufland Bulgaria team in Sofia will increase by 140 people by the end of the year. The expansion is related to ensuring the operation of the chain's two new hypermarkets, which are due to open their doors in the coming months in the capital's "Manastirski Livadi" and "Lyulin" districts. The company's total investment in the two stores exceeds BGN 90 million. With the opening of the new jobs, the Kaufland team in the country will reach a total of 7,000 people, distributed across the company's three structures – Head Office, Central Warehouse and branch network. Kaufland Bulgaria is a leader in the trade sector in our country with an annual turnover of nearly BGN 1.9 billion.

The co-founder and head of the American office of "Shelley Group" (previously known as "Alterco") Svetlin Todorov has sold part of his shares in the company to German investors. Todorov sold outside the regulated market about 2% of the company's capital, or a total of 361,500 shares, at a price of EUR 19 per share (a little over BGN 37 at the central exchange rate of the BNB). The total value of the transaction amounts to almost EUR 6.87 million (over BGN 13.4 million). After the sale, Todorov's share in Shelly Group reached 30.39% (5,485,620 shares), i.e. he remains a major shareholder in the company.

Growth in eurozone corporate loans was the slowest in almost eight years in August, further evidence that the European Central Bank's aggressive rate hike is weighing on economic activity. Loans to the corporate sector of the euro bloc grew by only 0.6% compared to the same period last year, against 2.2% growth in July, the ECB informed in an official statement on September 27. Lending to households slowed to 1% from 1.3% in July. Eurozone monetary strategists are watching these and similar data closely to assess the impact of a 450 basis point increase in the community's interest rates from July 2022. European central bankers expect the 20-nation bloc to stagnate in the third quarter, even as business surveys show a contraction in the private sector.

New York easily retains its place as the top global financial center, while London holds second place in a tight battle with Singapore and Hong Kong, according to the Global Financial Centers Index released by Reuters. New York, which displaced London from the top in September 2018, topped the rankings with 763 points based on 147 factors compiled by 121 institutions, including the World Bank, the United Nations and the OECD. London slightly narrowed its gap and received 744 points, which brings some relief after predictions that the British capital will lose its position as a global financial center due to Brexit and the fact that quite a few companies have left it in recent years. However, Singapore with its 742 points is already "breathing down London's neck", and Hong Kong is only one point behind it, which portends a fierce battle for second place. The index is produced every six months by London-based think tank Z/Yen and the China Development Institute. The survey shows that US financial centers are performing well and five of them are in the global top 10.

Indonesian authorities have banned the use of social networks as a platform for selling goods and services and will continue to work to regulate e-commerce to protect the interests of local companies, reports US TV channel CNBC. A few days earlier, President Joko Widodo said that competition from social networks, which allow the purchase of many different, including foreign goods, is negatively affecting the sales of micro, small and medium enterprises in Indonesia. The ban imposed by the authorities will be a positive development for local companies specializing in e-commerce, as well as for Singapore's Shopee, one of the leading players in the field of online commerce in the region, according to Citi analysts. The new restrictions are expected to hit TikTok the hardest. The platform's audience in the country is 113 million users, only slightly lower than the main US market (116.5 million users). The company respects local laws and hopes that the adoption of the announced rules will take into account their impact on the ability of the more than 6 million sellers using TikTok Shop to make a living, the social network's administration emphasized. In June, CEO Shaw Ji Chu announced that TikTok wants to invest billions of dollars in Indonesia and Southeast Asia as a whole over the next few years.