The Total Producer Price Index in April 2019 increased by 4.3% on an annual basis. An increase was registered in the electricity, gas, steam and heat supply by 6.9%, in the manufacturing by 3.5% and in the mining and quarrying industry by 3.4%, the National Statistical Institute reported. In the manufacturing industry, the most significant price increase was observed in: manufacture of basic metals by 5%, leather processing and manufacture of articles of furskins without hair - by 4.9%, and repair and installation of machinery and equipment - with 4.3%. Compared to March, producer price increases were 0.4%. The NSI report higher prices in the mining industry - by 4%, in the processing industry - by 0.5%. Production and distribution of electricity, heating and gas decreased by 0.3%.

According to preliminary data of the National Statistical Institute in April, the index of production in construction sector, calculated on the basis of seasonal data, is 0.4% above the level of the previous month. Calendar-adjusted data show an increase of 5.8% in construction output in April 2019 compared to the same month of 2018. The construction output index, calculated from seasonal data, was above the level of the previous month, as output from building construction increased by 0.6% and civil/engineering construction by 0.1%. On an annual basis, the increase in construction output in April 2019, calculated from calendar data, is determined by the positive rate of building construction, where growth is by 10.8%, while in civil/engineering construction a decrease of 0.9%.

Bulgarian plastics producer Integra Plastics is investing EUR 40 million in a plastic waste recycling factory near Elin Pelin, on the outskirts of Sofia. The new factory is expected to recycle 40,000 tons of plastic waste material annually to produce 24,000 t of high-density polypropylene granules, that can be further used for production purposes. The company has meanwhile opened an office in Solun, Greece, which will be responsible for sales. Some 80 employees are expected to be employed at the plant. Integra Plastic has financed the project with own funds and bank loans. The company expects to return its investment within a period of seven years. The decision for the investment comes as a result of China's recent ban on household plastic waste imports that created a market niche in local economies. Integra Plastic, established in Sofia at the beginning of 2018, is majority owned by Betainvest - the company of businessman Angel Georgiev, who also owns grain trading company Bildcom and sunflower oil producer Oliva. Integra Plastic in specialised in the production of low-density polyethylene, high-density polyethylene and polypropylene granules with a yearly capacity of 30,000 metric tonnes.

Bulgaria's OZK Insurance is planning to launch operations in Italy, according to a statement by Bulgaria's Financial Supervision Commission. The Financial Supervision Commission asked OZK Insurance to provide further information and documents regarding its intentions to offer services in Italy, the financial regulator said in a statement. OZK Insurance was established in 1996, and was majority owned by Sofia municipality until 2008. With a network of 70 branches across the company, OZK Insurance offers 12 types of insurance policies.

There is a deal for the railway repair workshop Vagono - Remonten Zavod- Karlovo, said the manager of DB Cargo Bulgaria, Lubomir Garchev. The buyer company is part of DB Cargo, which is a subsidiary of the state-owned German railway carrier Deutsche Bank. The company has refrained from announcing its intentions after the purchase of the bankruptcy plant. But experts from the railway industry comment that DB Cargo Bulgaria is developing its facilities, probably in it will repair wagons and maybe in the future also produce the premises of its new acquisition. The railway specialist Simeon Ananiev connects the purchase of Deutsche Bank with the expected but still unsolved investment of the Volkswagen in Plovdiv. The new owner will start working in September with 70 workers, and later the workforce will reach 300. What is officially known is that DB Cargo Bulgaria has already applied for a certificate for investor class at the InvestBulgaria Agency for the plant in Karlovo.

Bulgaria's Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) has approved local CEE Properties REIT's prospectus for listing an eight-year BGN 20 million bond issue for trading on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange. The bonds, issued in December 2018, carry an annual coupon of 4.5% with interest payments due twice per year. The issue consists of 20,000 bonds with a nominal value of BGN 1,000 each. CEE Properties REIT is now due to seek admission to trading on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange from the bourse operator.

Bulgarian arms producer Arcus said that its net profit grew to BGN 21.4 million last year from BGN 4.9 million in 2017, following a hefty increase in revenue. Arcus' total revenue grew to BGN 165.2 million in 2018 from BGN 152.0 million the year before, as sales rose to BGN 149.5 million from BGN 141.7 million. Expenses fell to BGN 141.4 million last year from BGN 146.5 million in 2017, despite an increase in expenses for materials to BGN 96.4 million in 2018 from BGN 84.4 million in 2017. Using BGN 15.99 million from its net profit in 2018, Arcus increased its capital to BGN 45.69 million last week. Arcus, based in the town of Lyaskovets, in northern Bulgaria, produces ammunition, fuses for artillery and tank ammunition, mortar bombs and air bombs, grenade launchers and small arms like pistols and revolvers.

German industrial output and exports fell sharply in April, highlighting the continued vulnerability of Europe’s largest economy to trade frictions and Brexit uncertainty, a day after the European Central Bank signaled concerns about euro zone growth. Friday’s figures from the Statistics Office suggested German GDP growth would slow or even stall in the current quarter, and the Bundesbank slashed its growth forecast for all of 2019, which as recently as December stood at 1.6%, to just 0.6%. Industrial output dropped 1.9% on the month, the sharpest decline since August 2015, after a steep fall in the production of investment and intermediate goods. Economists had forecast a 0.4% fall. Exports fell 3.7 percent, also the biggest drop since August 2015. The German economy had only narrowly avoided recession in the last three months of 2018, stagnating after a contraction in the third quarter, and grew a moderate 0.4% in January-March. German manufacturing has been in recession for much of this year as unresolved trade disputes between the United States and both China and the European Union as well as the effect of Britain’s delayed departure from the European Union hit exports.

Alphabet Inc.’s Google agreed to buy Looker Data Sciences Inc. for $2.6 billion, expanding its offerings to help customers manage data in the cloud. The acquisition announced Thursday gives Google a new tool in its campaign to sell more cloud storage and software. So far, the company has struggled to compete with larger rivals Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. and late last year, Google replaced its head of cloud, Diane Greene, with longtime Oracle Corp. executive Thomas Kurian. Looker, based in Santa Cruz, California, helps companies visualize and analyze the data they store in the cloud. The deal is Google’s biggest since it acquired smart-home company Nest Labs for $3.2 billion in 2014, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Any dealmaking by Google now will get a close look by regulators, since the company is facing an antitrust investigation by the U.S. Justice Department. But analysts’ initial reaction is that the anticompetitive threat isn’t high in this domain. Google shares were down less than 1%.

The US is pursuing the sale of more than US$2 billion of tanks and weapons to Taiwan, four people familiar with the negotiations said, in a move likely to anger China as a trade dispute between the world’s two biggest economies escalates. President Tsai Ing-wen in March said that the US was responding positively to Taipei’s requests for new arms sales to bolster its defenses in the face of pressure from China. The US has no formal ties with Taiwan, but is bound by the Taiwan Relations Act to help provide it with the means to defend itself. China and the US are engaged in a fierce trade dispute, with clashes over Taiwan and the South China Sea exacerbating tensions. A spokesman for the US Department of State, which oversees foreign military sales, said that the US government does not comment on or confirm potential or pending arms sales or transfers before Congress is formally notified.