Banks' revenues from fees and commissions increased by 9% in 2018 and reached BGN 1.25 billion, while their fees costs increased by 21.7% to BGN 184.5 million, according to the "The Economy and the Banking Sector of Bulgaria" report of the Association of Banks in Bulgaria. In 2018, banks' net income from fees increased by 7% to BGN 1.07 billion. Banks' interest income also increased. In 2018, net interest income of banks, which is formed by the difference between revenue and interest expense, increased by 2.5% to BGN 2.74 billion. Interest income from the treasury decreased by 0.1% to BGN 3.04 billion, and their interest expenses decreased by 19.2% and amounted to BGN 297.3 million. At the end of 2018 interest on BGN household deposits amounted to 0.21% on average, from 0.24% a year earlier. However, in the case of euro-denominated deposits, the average interest rate rose from 0.21% to 0.23%. For corporate deposits, the average interest rate is reduced to 0.06% for BGN and up to 0.02% for EUR deposits.

About 31% of new pensioners will have a lower individual rate and a correspondingly lower retirement pension due to the change in policy rules in that year's calculation. Thus, NSSI will save BGN 9.1 million this year. This shows the preliminary results of the Institute's analysis. From this year, the retirement formula is now calculated only for the pension earned by the pensioner earning after 1 January 2000. In 2015, the 2015 pension reform decided to drop the three best years before 1997, and last year when discussing the NSSI budget for this year, it was decided to drop the years to 2000 as well. The NSSI has made a preliminary analysis based on data for 67,881 insured persons to whom it has sent letters of notification that they are due to reach the required pension years in 2019.

Software Group will open 200 new jobs in Bulgaria by 2021. The company founded in Bulgaria operates on six continents and with over 150 clients in 70 countries. Currently, the number of its employees exceeds 350. The expansion will be funded with the first EIB investment loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) amounting to EUR 18 million. The funds will be invested in two main areas - R & D and Innovation, Business Development and Marketing. In the next three years, the company will focus on the development of new technologies, platforms and products in the fields of insurance, factoring and the Internet of Things (IoT). It also plans to implement strategic partnerships with other technology companies and consultancy organizations. Software Group was founded in 2009 and its headquarters are located in Sofia and the other offices are based in Australia, Egypt, Ghana, India, Kenya, Mexico, the United States and the Philippines. Its core business is related to the development of innovative software products that facilitate access to financial services as well as to improve the efficiency of financial institutions themselves.

U.S.-based International Business Exchange (IBX) data centre and colocation provider Equinix will open officially in April a USD 19 million data centre in Sofia, its second in Bulgaria. The new data centre will have 350 cabinets, with a possibility to add 1,100 cabinets in subsequent phases. Equinix Bulgaria launched the expansion project in June as a green-field investment. The land plot on which the new interconnected data centre is built belongs to the company, and Equinix Bulgaria has the opportunity for expansion in the same location if there is market demand. In Bulgaria, Equinix has over a hundred clients, mostly providers of cloud services, network operators, big corporations and media companies. They use the Equinix colocation platform which links 200 data centres globally. Equinix entered Bulgaria in 2016 with the acquisition of UK-based Telecity Group. Equinix Bulgaria Data Centers EAD is fully-owned by Equinix Netherlands B.V.

A textile factory for BGN 10 million will be built in the Plovdiv region. Negotiations are currently taking place between the foreign investor and Trakia Economic Zone, where the industrial site will be built. The deal is expected to be finalized by the end of this year. The textile factory is from the last wave of new factories that are emerging in the neighboring municipalities of Plovdiv. Currently, ten factories are being built.

Bulgaria's CCB Real Estate Fund REIT said that local insurance company Armeec has acquired 47,800 shares in the company, equal to a 4.44% stake, for a total of BGN 3.35 million. The deal was concluded on March 14 outside the floor of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, CCB Real Estate Fund REIT said in a statement. Armeec held a 11.52% stake in CCB Real Estate Fund REIT at the end of 2018.

Doverie-Invest, a subsidiary of Doverie United Holding, won the public tender for 63.8865% of Moldindconbank S.A., which is the second largest bank in Moldova. The auction was held on Monday on a regulated market on the Moldovan Stock Exchange. The vendor of the case is the Moldovan Government through the State Property Agency and decided to sell 3,173,751 shares. "The settlement of the deal will be completed in the next few days, with which the acquisition of the shares will finally be completed", Doverie-Invest said. According to the Moldavian web site diez.md the purchase would be at a price of 764,048,815.74 Moldovan lei, or BGN 76.9 million. This is 0.5% above the starting price of MDL 760,113,364.5. According to the Moldovan website, the deal will end on March 22, 2019.

Innovative project to solve some of the biggest problems in the B2B media and information industry brought an award for the Bulgarian company A Data Pro, the company said. The company is among the ten winners of the Connectivity Innovation Awards 2019 of the international Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA). The A Data Pro solution is the winner of the "Transforming Business Models" category. "The synthesis between man and machine is what defines A Data Pro's transformed business model." The company combined the knowledge of its analysts with the advanced capabilities of machine learning technology, creating an integral whole - artificial intelligence, more powerful than anything we did so far," commented A Data Pro Executive Director, Iliya Krastev. The competition includes a total of five categories: "Transforming Business Models", "Changing Culture at Work", "Engaging Ecosystem Partners", "Ensuring a Dynamic Client Experience" and "Creating a New Revenue Flow".

A merger of Deutsche Bank and its rival Commerzbank could result in as many as 30,000 job cuts over the long term, a representative of German union Verdi who is a Deutsche supervisory board member said. A top investor in Deutsche Bank also expressed doubts about a potential merger, according to a person close to the investor. The fierce opposition from the union and shareholder reservations come after both banks confirmed talks about a merger and underlines the obstacles to efforts to combine Germany's two biggest banks. Most of the 30,000 positions at risk are based in Germany, Verdi's Jan Duscheck said. Over the short term there are 10,000 jobs under threat, Duscheck added. The supervisory boards of both banks meet on Thursday when the merger is likely to be discussed. The German government has pushed for a combination given concerns about the health of Deutsche, which has struggled to generate sustainable profits since the 2008 financial crisis.

President Donald Trump’s trade battles cost the U.S. economy $7.8 billion in lost gross domestic product in 2018, a study by a team of economists at leading American universities. Authors of the paper said they analyzed the short-run impact of Trump’s actions and found that imports from targeted countries declined 31.5 percent while targeted U.S. exports fell by 11 percent. They also found that annual consumer and producer losses from higher costs of imports totaled $68.8 billion. “After accounting for higher tariff revenue and gains to domestic producers from higher prices, the aggregate welfare loss was $7.8 billion,” or 0.04 percent of GDP, the researchers said. The study was authored by a team of economists at the University of California Berkeley, Columbia University, Yale University and University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and published by the National Bureau of Economic research.

China's employment remained stable despite a higher jobless rate in January and February, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The surveyed urban unemployment rate stood at 5.1 percent in January and 5.3 percent in February, up 0.1 percentage points and 0.3 percentage points year on year, respectively, and higher than the 4.9-percent level recorded in December, the NBS data showed. The levels remained below the around-5.5 percent target set by the government for 2019, with employment expected to improve in the coming months, according to Li Xiru, head of the department of population and employment at the NBS. Li attributed the higher rate to reduced jobs at some export firms due to weakening external demand and seasonal disruptions around the Spring Festival, which fell on Feb. 5. "Many Chinese workers, especially migrant workers, quit their jobs before the festival and now seek new jobs. This often bringing the jobless rate higher during the period," Li said.