The consumer price index in January 2019 compared to December 2018 was 100.5%, i.e. the monthly inflation was 0.5%, according to the preliminary data of the National Statistical Institute (NSI). The annual inflation in January 2019 compared to January 2018 was 3.0%. The annual average inflation, measured by CPI, in the last 12 months (February 2018 - January 2019) compared to the previous 12 months (February 2017 - January 2018) was 2.9%. According to the preliminary data of the NSI, the harmonized index of consumer prices in January 2019 compared to December 2018 was 100.0%, i.e. the monthly inflation was 0.0%. The annual inflation in January 2019 compared to January 2018 was 2.2%. The annual average inflation, measured by HICP, in the last 12 months (February 2018 - January 2019) compared to the previous 12 months (February 2017 - January 2018) was 2.7%. According to the preliminary data of the NSI, the price index of a small basket in January 2019 compared to December 2018 was 101.1%.

Bulgaria’s jobless rate increased by 0.3 percentage points month-on-month to 6.4% at the end of January, the government's Employment Agency said. A total of 209,308 people were unemployed at the end of January, of which 32,756 newly-registered with labour offices during the month, the Employment Agency said in a statement. The number of people who found a job in the first month of the year totalled 17,681. There were 13,859 registered job vacancies in January. The highest share of vacancies was registered in the manufacturing sector, 31% of the total.

Esseterre Bulgaria is building a second distillery for essential oils in Dobrich worth BGN 4.2 million, which will be completed in May this year. The project is belongs to the American DoTERRA - the owner of the Bulgarian company, which since 2015 has invested BGN 12 million in the country in production facilities, warehouses, buildings. Permanent workers in the Bulgarian firm are 90 and another 90 are seasonally employed for six months a year. The second distillery will increase its team by 30%. According to the last activity report published in the Commercial Register in 2017, the revenues of Esseterre Bulgaria increased more than three times to almost BGN 31 million compared to the previous year and the profits reached BGN 3.573 million compared to 824 thousand in 2016. In 2018, a 95% revenue growth vs. 2017 was recorded.

Paper and cardboard packaging company Smurfit Kappa Europe, part of London-listed Smurfit Kappa Group, is seeking approval from Bulgaria's anti-trust authority to acquire Lovech-based peer Vitavel. The acquisition is likely to have an effect on the local corrugated fiberboard production market, as well as the corrugated fiberboard packaging segment, Smurfit Kappa Europe said in a notice to Bulgaria's Commission for Protection of Competition. Interested parties can submit their position to the regulator within seven days. Smurfit Kappa Group operates in 21 countries in Europe and 12 countries in North and South America. Bulgaria's Vitavel Invest held an 84.9% stake in Vitavel at the end of 2016. Vitavel ended 2016 with a slim loss of BGN 365,000, up from BGN 238,000 in 2015. The company's operating revenue increased to BGN 12.7 million in 2016 from BGN 12.4 million the year before.

The Pirdop-based copper processing plant Aurubis Bulgaria reports less production for the October-December period of 2018. This shows the report of the German owner Aurubis Group for the first quarter of the financial year. The reason for the decrease is the suspension of production for non-plan repair. Similar temporary cessation of work occurred in two other plants in the group, which reduced the revenues of the whole segment "Refining and Processing of Metals" to which Aurubis Bulgaria belongs. The amount of processed copper concentrate in Pirdop has decreased by 10% to 323 thousand tons for the quarter. The entire refining and processing segment generated EUR 2.3 billion in revenue for the quarter from EUR 2.6 billion for the same period of the financial year 2017/2018. The EBT of the unit drops sharply to EUR 58 million after the strong result reported a year earlier (EUR 93 million).

Bulgaria's Jumbo EC.B, a wholly-owned unit of Greek toy retailer Jumbo, is going to decrease its registered capital by BGN 37.3 million to BGN 161.6 million. The Bulgarian company does not currently need the funds, minutes from Jumbo EC.B's recent shareholders meeting showed. The company will decrease its capital by cutting the nominal value of its shares to BGN 65 from BGN 80. Jumbo EC.B will subsequently transfer the BGN 37.3 million to its parent company. In September, Jumbo EC.B cut its capital by BGN 49.7 million to BGN 198.9 million, as it lowered the nominal value of its shares to BGN 80 from BGN 100. The toy retailer entered the Bulgarian market in 2005 and currently has nine stores in the country - four in Sofia, and one each in the cities of Plovdiv, Varna, Burgas, Ruse and Stara Zagora. Jumbo's Bulgarian unit employed 839 people at the end of June. Jumbo entered the Bulgarian market in 2005. Outside Greece, Jumbo has stores in Bulgaria, Romania and Cyprus.

Puldin Lion Group REIT acquired 100% in Rodna Zemya Holding for an undisclosed price. The transaction was concluded on February 13, Rodna Zemya Holding said. Rodna Zemya Holding shares last traded on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange on January 29, when they closed at BGN 1.86 apiece, corresponding to a market capitalisation of BGN 67 mln. At the end of 2018, three companies held stakes exceeding 5% in Rodna Zemya Holding.  Nevena owned 32.61%, Development Assets held 6.10%, and Central Cooperative Bank kept 5.25%.

Germany's finance ministry is looking into the possibility of a 15 percent special tax on online advertising revenue collected by foreign internet companies such as Google or Facebook from German operators, Wirtschaftswoche magazine reported on Friday. The ministry was in the early stage of studying such a move, the weekly publication added. This move could entail treating payments for online advertisements in the same way as licence fee payments, which would make the German companies subject to withholding tax being deducted. The German companies, which choose to place online advertisements, will have to recover this withholding tax from the internet firms as the revenue would be their original tax liability, the report said. The detour via German customers would be necessary because the tax system has no access to platform operators based abroad. The finance ministry had confirmed the plans, but stressed there was no agreement on how to proceed between federal finance authorities and individual states, the magazine reported.

Ford Motor Co. and Volkswagen AG are progressing toward a potential agreement to join forces on self-driving cars and have overcome earlier obstacles, according to people familiar with the talks. Breakthroughs in the deliberations Thursday include a possible framework for Volkswagen to work with and invest in Argo AI, the Ford-backed autonomous-vehicle startup, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks were private. The automakers discussed an approximate valuation for the company of $4 billion, one of the people said. Volkswagen continues to be in constructive talks with Ford, a spokesman for the German giant said by phone, declining to elaborate. A spokeswoman for Ford said discussions are ongoing and have been productive across a number of areas. A partnership on autonomous technology would build on the deal sealed in January to jointly produce commercial vehicles. The companies found common ground Thursday on a structure to jointly bring self-driving cars to market, the people said. Volkswagen, the world’s largest automaker, and Ford would create a global colossus in the self-driving space to take on the likes of Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo and General Motors Co.’s GM Cruise unit.

China has pledged to end market-distorting subsidies for its domestic industries but offered no details on how it would achieve that goal, according to three people familiar with the U.S.-China trade talks in Beijing this week. China promised to bring all subsidy programs into compliance with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, the sources said, but U.S. negotiators reacted skeptically, in part because China has long refused to disclose its subsidies. Without knowing exactly how the Chinese government finances industries and state-run companies, any reform promises would be difficult to enforce, said the sources, speaking on condition of anonymity because the negotiations are confidential. The sticking point between the world’s two largest economies illustrates a core challenge in ending their seven-month trade war: Ensuring China’s pledges will translate into concrete action. In four days of talks this week in Beijing, progress has been difficult on U.S. demands for structural reforms, according to one of the sources briefed on the talks. In addition to curbs on state subsidies, U.S. negotiators are seeking measures to end the forced transfer of U.S. technology to Chinese firms and cyber theft of American trade secrets.