Bulgaria's exports in January to November 2018 were 1.5 per cent higher than in January to November 2017, the National Statistical Institute (NSI) said. In the period January - November 2018 the total value of all the goods exported from Bulgaria amounted to BGN 51.1 billion. In November 2018, the total exports of goods added up to BGN 5.1 billion, an increase of 2.2 per cent compared to the corresponding month of the previous year. The total value of all the goods imported into Bulgaria in the period January - November 2018 amounted to BGN 58.1 billion (at CIF prices), 7.7 per cent more than the same period of 2017. In November 2018 the total imports of goods increased by 3.6 per cent compared to the same month of the previous year and added up to BGN 5.7 billion. The total foreign trade balance (exports FOB - import CIF) was negative in the period January - November 2018 and amounted to BGN 6.9 billion.

The seasonally adjusted production index in section 'Construction' dropped by 1.2 per cent in November 2018 compared to the previous month, according to preliminary data of the National Statistical Institute. In November 2018, working day adjusted data also showed a decrease of 1.8 per cent in the construction production year-on-year. In November 2018, the seasonally adjusted construction production index was lower than in October 2018, with civil engineering production dropping by 1.4 per cent, and building construction production by 1 per cent. In November 2018, the working day adjusted decrease of construction production was caused by the negative rate in building construction, down by 2 per cent, and in civil engineering, down by 1.5 per cent.

Etem Bulgaria, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Belgium-based holding company Viohalco, decided to spin-off its production of extruded aluminium profiles business and the additional processing of aluminium profiles for the automotive industry into two units and to enter into an investment agreement with Spanish car parts maker Gestamp, Viohalco said. As part of the agreement, two joint ventures will be established which will focus on the extrusion and processing of aluminium profiles for the automotive industry, in which an investment programme of some EUR 30 million willl be implemented in the next three years, for the installation of a new extrusion line and related machinery for further processing of aluminium profiles in Bulgaria. The agreement with Gestamp, a leading global group specialised in the design, development and manufacturing of metal components and structural systems for the automotive industry, will further strengthen Etem Bulgaria’s position in the automotive sector and help to ensure it can successfully meet the increased demand for aluminium products, following recent developments in the automotive industry.

Businessmen Spas Rusev and Kiril Domuschiev negotiate with the Swedish company MTG for the purchase of New Broadcasting Group after it was announced that the agreement for the sale of Nova TV with the PPF fund of the Czech billionaire Peter Waiter for EUR 185 million had been suspended. The deal with Kellner failed because of the ban by the Commission for the Protection of Competition and MTG said they were negotiating with other bidders. Spas Rusev said his participation will not be through BTC. According to various sources, the deal for Nova could be concluded before the end of March this year at a price over EUR 100 million. This is well below the amount for which MTG had acquired the new Nova + cable channel in 2008 and 80% of the Eva Magazine. Back then the Swedes paid EUR 620 million to the Greek owner Antena Group.

Bosch Software Innovations is opening a center for the development of automotive software at Sofia Tech Park. The company has begun recruiting a team since the beginning of the year. A brief announcement of the Tech park’s website states that Bosch relies on the development center to continue with the development of software for the automotive sector. The company works for all major German car manufacturers, providing them with navigation and diagnostic software, as well as vehicle support and other components such as hydraulics, fuel, etc. Separately, it also manufactures auto service equipment, including exhaust gas diagnostic equipment. It is expected that during this or next week, Bosch will sign a contract under which the state will give it an investor class and will be able to get preference under the Investment Promotion Act. According to sources from the automotive sector in Bulgaria, the arrival of Bosch's auto-division in Bulgaria is related to the eventual attraction of a big car maker. Apart from this, Bosch has a development center in Sofia, which develops software for home appliances, buildings and energy.

Bulgartabac Holding closes the cigarette manufacturing plant Blagoevgrad-BT. The management of the company has given people two days to submit their applications for voluntary departure, the workers said. The largest enterprise of the cigarette holding has only 200 people remaining from the previous 2000. They have been informed that the factory would close and it would be better for them to ask the employer to release them, i.e. to leave voluntarily. This way they will receive redundancies between 4 and 5 gross wages, depending on length of service, as well as the right to be on the exchange for four months against the minimum compensation. Otherwise, they will be placed in forced unpaid leave, and then the factory would stop working definitively. For the last three months, Blagoevgrad-BT has worked 24 hours a day at maximum speed, without stopping during the holidays, in order to fulfill the latest order to Bulgartabac's customers.

The expansion of the Chiren underground gas storage facility will be concluded in 2024; that is when the construction of the facility's underground and ground installations should be finished, Energy Minister Temenuzhka Petkova said. She explained that three-dimensional field seismic studies are now being conducted at Chiren to determine the final version of the expansion. The expansion was delayed due to an appeal lodged by one of the participants in the public procurement procedure. Bulgartransgaz EAD signed a contract for the project on May 25, 2018 and is currently implementing it. Petkova also said that once the Southern Gas Corridor and the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) are finished, Bulgaria will be able to receive 1 billion m3 of Azeri gas, as envisaged in the 2013 agreement between Bulgargransgaz and the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR). This is one-third of Bulgaria's natural gas consumption. The construction of the IGB should begin in two to three months, and it should be finished and put into operation by the second half of 2020.

The Confederation of British Industry is to warn that a crash-out Brexit will shrink the country’s economy by 8% and put thousands of jobs at risk. The CBI’s director general Carolyn Fairbairn will say in a speech on Friday that British politicians have a duty to “safeguard the security and prosperity of our country” and put jobs and the economy ahead of politics. Her comments come as MPs prepare to vote on Jan. 15 on whether or not to accept U.K. Prime Minister’s exit agreement with Brussels. Fairbairn’s comments echo those made by ratings agency S&P Global Ratings on Thursday. S&P said it could reassess its guidance on U.K. banks if the country is forced into a disorderly exit from the EU It is widely expected that May will see her Brexit deal, secured last year, rejected by U.K. parliamentarians in next Tuesday’s vote. That would raise the likelihood of the U.K. leaving the EU without a deal in March.

The Brazilian government said it would allow a proposed tie-up between planemakers Embraer SA and Boeing Co to go forward, capping weeks of uncertainty in which President Jair Bolsonaro expressed hesitation. The approval maintains the terms of the deal as previously proposed, with Embraer selling 80 percent of its commercial plane division, its most profitable, for $4.2 billion to Boeing, which will have total control of the new venture. But one thing was new: the government said in a press release that the two planemakers would “maintain the current jobs in Brazil,” a move that might appease union workers and politicians who had raised concerns that, if the deal went through, Boeing would then try to slash jobs. The companies had previously been noncommittal on the issue. The tie-up between Embraer and Boeing is seen as part of a reshaping of the global aviation market for mid-sized planes. It follows a similar deal by Boeing’s rival Airbus which bought Bombardier Inc’s commercial plane division that competed with Embraer.

China plans to set a target range for economic growth of 6 to 6.5 percent for 2019, Reuters reported, citing unnamed officials. That compares with the 2018 target of “about 6.5 percent,” signaling that policy makers are embedding the ongoing economic slowdown into their goals for the year. The government is also widening the targeted budget deficit for the year, to 2.8 percent of gross domestic product. Incoming data signal that the moderation in the world’s second-largest economy is deepening in the first quarter, with a report this week raising the risk of factory-price deflation. While conducting negotiations with the U.S. over the ongoing trade dispute, the government has rolled out a series of policies to boost output, without resorting to broad or large-scale stimulus. China’s Rekindled Deflation Fears Add to Global Growth Concerns While a target band signals a greater amount of uncertainty over the economic outlook than in the past, if confirmed the level is in line with economist expectations.