Bulgaria will pay higher fines for non-compliance with EU legislation after the European Commission changes its calculation method. The Commission may propose financial sanctions to the Court of Justice if a state does not apply EU law. Fines are the final stage of criminal proceedings, which consist of two warnings and a claim before the European Court. If the magistrates judge in favor of Brussels, the Commission proposes the amount of the financial penalty that the court orders. The calculation takes into account three factors - the gravity and duration of the infringement, the size of the economy and the weight of the country concerned in the European institutions. Now, the European Commission is changing the last component of the formula, instead of the weight of the country in making decisions in the EU Council, it will measure the number of its MEPs as an institutional burden. Bulgaria has a weight of 10 votes in the Council decision, which equals 1.44% of the total votes. In the European Parliament, however, its weight is 2.26% of the 751-member parliament and will grow to 2.41% after the Brexit.

As of the end of 2018, assets managed by local and foreign investment funds amounted to BGN 3906 million and grew on an annual basis by BGN 332.9 million (9.3 per cent), BNB reported. As a percentage of gross domestic product, the total assets of local and foreign investment funds as of December 2018 was 3.6 per cent, compared to 3.5 per cent of GDP as of December 2017. At the end of 2018, local investment fund assets reached BGN 1501.2 million, an increase by BGN 181.9 million (13.8 per cent) on an annual basis. The assets of the funds investing in shares increased on an annual basis by BGN 49.6 million (9.3 per cent) and those of the equities and bond balance funds - by BGN 40.8 million (15.3 per cent) to BGN 307 million. The funds of the bond investment funds rose again on an annual basis by BGN 91.6 million (17.6 per cent) to BGN 611 million.

Bulgarian battery maker Monbat's is considering investing in a new 2.4GWh plant in the city of Vratsa, which will specialise in the production of bipolar batteries. Monbat has presented an investment plan to Vratza municipality. If the municipality approves the project, Monbat will look into the opportunity to secure EU financing for its implementation, the company noted. Earlier on Thursday, local media reported that the investment will be in the amount of BGN 40 million. In December, Monbat said that it has acquired licensing rights to the full suite of GreenSeal Bipolar Lead battery technologies of Advanced Battery Concepts.

The Sofia Administrative Court has rejected complaints by Czech energy group CEZ and Inerkom Bulgaria over a December 2018 decision by the Commission for the Protection of Competition (CPC) which put on hold a deal for acquisition of the Bulgarian assets of CEZ by Inerkom until the Supreme Administrative Court decides on an earlier decision by the regulator to stop the deal. The Court found that the Commission for the Protection of Competition did the right thing when it stopped the deal until the Supreme Administrative Court makes a final decision because only then will there be clarity about the position of the CEZ-owned companies being acquired, and their market standing. The Court decision is appealable before the Supreme Administrative Court. The CEZ assets in Bulgaria include power distributor CEZ Razpredelenie, power supplier CEZ Electro Bulgaria, licensed electricity trader CEZ Trade Bulgaria, IT services company CEZ ICT Bulgaria, solar park Free Energy Project Oreshetz, the biomass-fired power plant Bara Group and CEZ Bulgaria, which runs the operations of the group's Bulgarian units.

National Company Industrial Zones (NCIZ) again announced the over BGN 70 mln order for the construction of infrastructure in several parks in the country, which was terminated in November, hours before the deadline for submitting offers. As with the previous procedure, the goal is to select contractors to sign a framework agreement for the design and construction of a total of 22 km of streets, on the basis of which specific contracts will be awarded over the next 4 years. In addition to the slight increase in the value of the contract and the length of the planned streets, the current order is not significantly different from the previous one. It does not include, for example, the construction of treatment plants in industrial zones, the lack of which was the main argument for the suspension of the procedure three months ago. The Open Order is for infrastructure engineering at NCIZ sites, which includes the design and construction of a total 22,100 m of street network. Besides Bozhurishte, Karlovo, Kardzhali, Suvorovo and Telish (Pleven), this time is added Sofia (600 m).

A new machine-building plant in Lyaskovets is completely ready and is about to start work. The construction of the machine-building enterprise is one of the largest investments in the municipality. The owner of the new plant is Armako AD, which has 20 years of experience in the defense industry. The company holds a full license to export and import weapons and special equipment for the transfer of arms as well as brokering with third parties weapons and special equipment. The plant in Lyaskovets will produce parts, assemblies and steel elements. The production base is situated on an area of nearly 14 decares. On it is built one-storey building with an area of about 2400 sq.m, as well as a three-storey administrative part. According to unofficial information, about 200 employees are expected to work in the factory. The plant will have two basic units for tooling and metalworking, and the workflow will be organized in three shifts.

Bulgarian online payment services provider ePay handled 8.8 million transactions in 2018 and expects the number to increase by 10% this year, as utility bills will continue to make up the bulk. “We conduct transactions worth some BGN 30-50 million monthly, or BGN 300-400 million annually," Georgi Marinov said. "In 2019, we expect transacations worth BGN 400-450 million in total," he added. In 2018, the company's online clients exceeded 350,000, as over 2,500 retailers used its services. The company's latest investment project is the PayFly invoicing and payment service. EPay is trying to strike a balance between simplicity, full functionality, security and price, as the services should meet the regulatory requirements and at the same time they should be fun. Epay was established in 2000. The company booked a profit of BGN 624,000 in 2017, down from BGN 730,000 a year earlier.

Top officials of the European Central Bank worried at their last meeting that the slowdown in economic growth might be "deeper and more broad-based" than previously suspected. The written account indicated the bank's 25-member rate-setting council felt they had to balance acknowledgement of worsening data with conveying confidence that the bank's stimulus policies were working. A key concern was rising trade protectionism amid a dispute between the U.S. and China that could result in more tariffs, or import taxes, that might further slow global trade. The ECB left interest rate benchmarks unchanged at record lows at the January meeting, but said risks to growth had increased. Analysts say the bank could delay its next rate increase, slated at the earliest for this fall, well into 2020. The ECB also said publicly after the meeting that it was ready to use all available tools should the outlook worsen. The bank, which is the chief monetary authority for the 19 countries that use the euro, ended a 2.6 trillion euro bond-buying stimulus program in December that pumped newly printed money into the economy over almost four years. 

Federal Reserve officials widely favored ending the runoff of the central bank’s balance sheet this year while expressing uncertainty over whether they would raise interest rates again in 2019, minutes of their January meeting showed. “Almost all participants thought that it would be desirable to announce before too long a plan to stop reducing the Federal Reserve’s asset holdings later this year,” according to the record of the Federal Open Market Committee. Read our TOPLive blog on the FOMC minutes here. The minutes also elaborated on the dovish message delivered three weeks ago when the FOMC said it will be “patient,” signaling it had put rate hikes on hold and was prepared to be more flexible on shrinking the balance sheet. The shift occurred after the worst December for U.S. stocks since the Great Depression, trade tensions escalated between the U.S. and China, and President Donald Trump berated officials for tightening monetary policy too much. Shedding additional light on the central bank’s pivot away from projecting gradual interest-rate hikes, the minutes said that “many participants suggested that it was not yet clear what adjustments to the target range for the federal funds rate may be appropriate later this year.”

Sony Corp said it will assign 40 percent of its new engineer hires in Japan over the next two years to the chip business which includes imaging sensors, as it looks for growth from new applications in everything from cars to phones. The allocation is in line with the company’s plans to invest 600 billion yen ($5.4 billion) in imaging sensors over the three years through March 2021, or half of the group’s planned capital expenditures. Sony controls more than half of the imaging sensor market for smartphones, and the sensor business was a key driver of a turnaround for the conglomerate which in its heyday led the world in consumer gadgets. Investors are looking for the next profit pillar as Sony’s gaming business shows signs of slowing, with its popular PlayStation 4 (PS4) console nearing the end of its lifecycle. But the company cut its annual profit outlook for imaging sensors this month to 130 billion yen, accounting for just 15 percent of the group’s overall profit, due to weakening global demand for smartphones. Sony plans to hire 320 new engineers annually in Japan this year and the next, up from 250 in 2018. The figures do not include those to be hired by overseas units.