In the third quarter of 2018, Bulgaria's gross domestic product rose by 2.7% on an annual basis by seasonally unadjusted data. Growth was driven by an increase in domestic demand, while the contribution of net exports was negative. This is clear from the monthly overview of the Ministry of Finance. Turnover growth of industrial enterprises accelerated to 9% in October compared to the same month of the previous year, with an annual increase of 4% in September. Favorable development covered the majority of industry sectors. Both sales for the domestic and foreign markets reported a higher increase of 10.7% and 7.3%, respectively. The number of employees fell by 0.9% in the third quarter, driven by the dynamics in agriculture, as employment in industry and services continued to increase. Real productivity growth accelerated to 3.7%, while nominal unit labor cost growth slowed to 1.4% yoy.

Bulgaria held stable ground in terms of economic freedom, prosperity and competitiveness in 2018. Bulgaria kept its 47th place out of 186 countries in the Index of Economic Freedom of The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal, and moved up two spots to 46th out of 162 countries in the Fraser Institute's Economic Freedom of the World Index. Bulgaria climbed five notches from 2016 in two UN indexes, to 47th place in the E-Government Development Index, and to 51st place in the Human Development Index. This country was ranked 47th among 149 countries on the Legatum Prosperity Index, moving up four spots from 2017. Bulgaria ranked 63rd in the International Property Rights Index of the Property Rights Alliance, compared to 66th place in 2016 and 85th in 2017. The World Bank's Logistics Performance Index showed a 20-notch improvement in Bulgaria's ranking to 52nd place from 2016. The Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy showed an improvement in Bulgaria's environmental performance, ranking it 30th out of 180 countries.

The biggest transport company in Bulgaria - PIMK, launched a new ecoproject. PIMK Rail trains will transport cargo of KCM to Cherkezkyu. This means more economical, environmentally friendly and fast moving goods between Bulgaria and Turkey. Moreover, the ecoproject will also have a real impact on traffic in Plovdiv and the region. Every week, nearly 70 trucks will be transported by PIMK Rail trains to Cherkezkyu. From there, the cargo is distributed to the Turkish towns of Chorlu and the suburb of Istanbul Tuzla. At the moment the trucks first drive to KCM, then to Plovdiv Customs, where after sealing they leave for the Turkish border. With the new ecoproject all this will be abridged. Every week PIMK Rail trains will be loaded with trailers to be transported. Customs Plovdiv also supports the project of the two companies by providing employees to seal the cargoes in the metallurgical plant itself. From 1 January 2019, the company will work on the same scheme with the copper plant Aurubis in Pirdop. Instead of trucks on the roads, their output will be transported by train. The next deal of the company is for the transport of nearly 50 trucks with export goods from Stamboliyski. At the beginning of March 2018 PIMK launched its first intermodal train for Turkey.

The Bulgarian company Arco Real Estate and the Estonian Arco Vara Kinnisvarabüroo AS have officially separated themselves from the Estonian investment group Arco Vara from January 1. The two companies will continue to operate in Bulgaria and Estonia respectively by offering real estate brokerage and advisory services under the same names after they have purchased a license from Arco Vara. According to the announcement of Arco Vara published for the Tallinn stock exchange, the total amount of the sale of the shares in the aforementioned subsidiaries was EUR 300,000 and has already been paid. The Estonian group had announced the change in its structure in the autumn last year. Then it became clear that it had entered into agreements with the management of the two companies to become owners from January 1 of this year. The deal also includes the license for use of the trademark, databases and intellectual property of Arco Vara. Under the licensing agreements, the Estonian group will receive a fee for five years, based on the companies' turnover. According to the latest published financial data, the two agencies that are separated have contributed EUR 942,000 in revenue to the group for the nine months to September 30, 2018.

From mid-January in the shops in Bulgaria will be sold 53 products of the bottled mineral water and non-alcoholic beverages Knyaz Milosh - Serbia. Importer for the country is the registered company in Bourgas - Vinitaly. Knyaz Milosh is the leader on its own market and is owned by the London-based Mid Europa Fund. Knyaz Milosh's portfolio includes six brands of drinks. According to company data, it has 700 employees, produces more than 200 million liters of drinks per year and exports to more than 20 countries. The company reports EUR 58 million of revenue and EUR 1.85 million net profit for 2016.

Twenty companies have expressed a non-binding interest in reserving a total of 12.2 billion cubic meters per year of the capacity of the floating LNG regasification terminal near Alexandroupolis as well as the supply to the Greek national gas transmission system. This is twice as much as the technical capacity of the future facility, which is 5.5 billion cubic meters per year, the project company announced on the realization of the Gastrade terminal. At the moment, its majority owner is the Greek family Koppeluzu, and 20 per cent are from one of the major international fleets of liquefied gas tankers - GasLog. At the end of December 2018 it became clear that the Bulgarian state gas operator Bulgartransgaz also plans to enter the capital by 20 per cent. The Greek state-owned company DEPA is also expected to become a co-owner. Bulgartransgaz is also a candidate for LNG terminal capacity, but the amounts is a trade secret. The companies that participated in this stage of the market test are not only from the Southeastern Europe region. A significant part of the major international gas traders have also expressed interest in the project.

Bulgarian diversified group CBA Asset Management said that its shareholders have approved the management's proposal to sell three of the company's wholly-owned units - CBA Franchise, CBA Logistics and Radomira-2006, for BGN 1 each. All three companies have a negative market valuation. CBA Franchise and CBA Logistics will be acquired by local Corect-A, while Radomira-2006 will be sold to a private individual. CBA Asset Management's share price has plunged 24.5% since it announced its plans to sell the three units in November last year. CBA Asset Management shares last traded on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange at a price of BGN 0.151 apiece.

The European Central Bank took control of a troubled Italian bank, an unprecedented step that spotlighted the risks to the eurozone’s financial system from political chaos in Rome and a sputtering economy. While the bank, Banca Carige, is a midsize lender, its fate has the potential to reverberate broadly. Among policymakers and economists looking for signs of the next crisis, Italy and its heavily indebted banks have been a source of concern for years. And the policies and statements of the populist government in Rome have recently added to the woes of Italy’s banks, and by extension, the whole economy. “It’s not a bank large enough to cause systemic crisis,” said Lorenzo Codogno, a former chief economist at Italy’s treasury who operates LC Macro Advisors, a consultancy in London. “But,” he added, “we have seen that even small banks can cause huge problems.” “The current government is not prepared for a full-fledged banking crisis,” Mr. Codogno said. The action by Europe’s central bank on Wednesday reassured investors so far that the vulnerabilities of Banca Carige, the 10th-largest lender in Italy, would not provoke a broader crisis.

Contrary to growing concerns about a potentially slowing U.S. economy, job creation surged in December as measured by the latest ADP/Moody's Analytics survey. Companies added 271,000 new positions as 2018 came to a close, smashing estimates of 178,000 from economists surveyed by Reuters. It was the survey's best month since February 2017, which saw a gain of 280,000, and brought the average monthly gain for last year to 206,000. December also showed a marked gain from November, when just 157,000 new jobs were added, a total revised lower from the initially reported 179,000. "Businesses continue to add aggressively to their payrolls despite the stock market slump and the trade war. Favorable December weather also helped lift the job market," Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, said in a statement. "At the current pace of job growth, low unemployment will get even lower." Professional and business services led the way with 66,000 new positions, education and health services contributed 61,000 and leisure and hospitality added 39,000.

Chinese coffee startup Luckin is aiming to open 2,500 new stores this year and overtake Starbucks Corp as the largest coffee chain by number of outlets in the world’s second-biggest economy, it said on Thursday. The firm, which only officially launched its business at the start of last year, has expanded at breakneck speed, propelled by a focus on technology, delivery, and heavy discounting even at the cost of mounting losses. “What we want at the moment is scale and speed,” Luckin’s chief marketing officer, Yang Fei, told reporters on Thursday at a presentation in Beijing. “There’s no point talking about profit,” he said, adding that subsidies to lure in more users would be an important part of the firm’s strategy for the next few years. Luckin said it was targeting a total of more than 4,500 stores by the end of 2019, which would take it past Seattle-based Starbucks that has long dominated China’s coffee scene and has over 3,600 stores in the country. Luckin’s caffeine-fuelled expansion is in stark contrast to Starbucks, which opened its first China store in 1999 and has spent two decades reaching its current store count.