Bulgaria is going to receive EU financial assistance totaling 2.9 million euros in order to fight the spread of African swine fever. This has become clear after a meeting in Brussels of Agriculture Minister Desislava Taneva and EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Vytenis Andriukaitis. The country also expects 11 million euros in emergency aid to compensate for the already eliminated outbreaks of swine fever, BNT has reported. According to the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency, mandatory measures for the preventive culling of domestic pigs have been introduced in 23 of all 28 districts in the country.

At the end of June 2019, the money in circulation reached BGN 17.361 billion, BNB announced. Compared to the same month last year, banknotes and coins in circulation increased by 10.1% or by BGN 1.592 billion. In the second quarter alone, money in circulation increased by BGN 505.7 million or 3%. The tendency for a faster increase in the number of high denomination banknotes (BGN 50 and BGN 100) in comparison with the other denominations remains. Compared to the end of June last year, the share of banknotes of BGN 50 and BGN 100 against all cash in circulation increased by 0.73 and 1.24 percentage points, respectively, and those of BGN 2, BGN 5, BGN 10 and BGN 20 goes down. The average value of banknotes in circulation at the end of June 2019 is BGN 36.38, which is an increase of BGN 1.48, or 4.24%, due to the faster increase in the circulation of banknotes of BGN 50 and BGN 100 compared to the other denominations, as well as due to the replacement of the BGN 2 banknote with a coin.

The nationalized in 2016 plant Avionams will repair F-16 fighter jets as part of a deal in which Bulgaria bought 8 new fighter jets for BGN 2.2 billion. Lockheed Martin aircraft manufacturer will assist Avionams with equipment of lines and staff training to help the Bulgarian plant maintain the aircraft's electrical and hydraulic systems, as well as the landing gear, Bulgaria's project manager Jim Robinson announced. Avionams will be able to serve not only Bulgarian fighters, but all F-16s in the countries of the region, he explained. The construction of the plant on the territory of Avionams, which does not currently have an aircraft repair license, is part of the industrial cooperation in the purchase of fighter jets. Lockheed Martin will also make a joint project with BAS and Bulgarian companies for the production of Bulgarian drones. However, it is not specified which Bulgarian company will participate in this project. Both the plant's construction and the drone development project have no launch dates so far, Robinson explained. It is also not clear what the investments in the two projects will be.

Maxima Bulgaria, owned by Maxima Grupė, has submitted a notification to the Bulgarian Commission for Protection of Competition of entering into a long-term lease agreement regarding the rental of the stores from the local retail chain Triumph. The stores are situated in the city of Plovdiv, the second biggest city in the country. Such a decision is a part of a long-term Maxima Bulgaria strategy for T-MARKET‘s development, which in recent years has been marked by active expansion and implementation of new store formats. "Over the last 14 years, we have been investing in stores near our customers’ households or workplaces, offering shopping experiences in the best possible conditions. The recent strategic step has been taken to strengthen our presence in Plovdiv, where we already have three T-MARKET stores. We will begin the process the store integration after having the permission from the CPC”, says Peter Pavlov, CEO of Maxima Bulgaria. Triumph is a local Bulgarian grocery chain operating in Plovdiv since 2000. So far, the retail chain has 11 stores located in all districts of the city. Maxima Bulgaria operates 73 stores in 38 Bulgarian citie

Real estate developer CTP has entered the Bulgarian market with plans to reach 100,000 square meters of leased space by the end of 2021. Bulgaria is CTP’s seventh market in the Central European region (alongside the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Romania, and Poland) extending the company’s geographical footprint from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, reports Emerging Europe.

Bulgaria's competition authority said that it has decided to impose a fine on Agria Group Holding for failure to properly notify the regulator about the acquisition of local company Kehlibar. The Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) has found evidence that Agria Group Holding had not notified the anti-trust body of the transaction in compliance with the CRC requirements even though it was obliged to, CPC said in a statement. The CPC also said that had it been properly notified, it would have unquestionably issued a clearance for the transaction. The fine cannot exceed 10% of Agria's turnover for the previous fiscal year, according to Bulgaria's law on protection of competition. Agria Group Holding can object to the decision within 30 days since receiving it. The regulator was not notified of the transaction despite the fact that the combined turnover of Agria Group Holding and Kehlibar exceeded the threshold which makes anti-trust clearance mandatory, according to data from the two companies' annual financial statements for 2015, CPC said when it opened proceedings in August 2018. Agria Group Holding's total consolidated turnover amounted to BGN 114.2 million in 2015, while Kehlibar posted a turnover of BGN 39.6 million.

Water Supply and Sewerage LTD – Ruse will benefit from a EU grant of over BGN 95.9 million for the overhaul and construction of water supply infrastructure. The total investment in the project will exceed BGN 131.8 million, the environment ministry said after signing the contract with Water Supply and Sewerage – Ruse. The EU funding will be provided under operational programme Environment 2014-2020. The project envisages rehabilitation, reconstruction and new construction of a total of 123 km of water supply network in the cities of Ruse and Tutrakan. After the successful completion of the project, a total of 138,250 inhabitants will have improved access to water supply and water loss is expected to decrease by 19% in the region. The project should be completed within 49 months.

At least eight EU member states expect they need more time than originally envisioned to put in place a national strategy on artificial intelligence (AI). The original goal was to have these plans by mid-2019. Now Croatia, Cyprus, Hungary, Slovenia, and Spain expect their final strategies will only be published by the end of 2019. The Netherlands expected its strategy in September or October, Austria referred to "autumn", while Ireland said it would be done in the final quarter of 2019. And for an additional six countries it is unclear when exactly their national AI plans will be finished. However, the mid-2019 target was always a rather 'soft' deadline - it could mean either specifically 1 July, or anywhere between 1 May and 31 August. And even that deadline was not a fully-binding target. The Coordinated Plan on the Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence Made in Europe, published by the European Commission last December, merely "encouraged" national governments to have them done by then.

President Donald Trump announced the US would expand its existing sanctions against Venezuela with an executive order to impose a total economic embargo against the country. The embargo freezes assets of the government of Venezuela and associated entities and prohibits economic transactions with it, unless specifically exempted. Exemptions include official business of the federal government and transactions related to the provision of humanitarian aid. The executive order marks an escalation from the already expansive US measures against the Venezuelan government since the start of the country's chaotic political and economic crisis earlier this year. Venezuela's political turmoil stems from presidential elections last year wherein Maduro secured another six-year term in a process widely viewed as a sham. Opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself acting president earlier this year. While several nations -- including China and Russia -- have supported Maduro in the wake of the election, Trump has been a vocal champion for Guaido.

Vivendi is in talks to sell up to 20% of Universal Music Group to Chinese technology group Tencent, valuing its prized asset at around 30 billion euros, in an attempt to break into China’s growing but tightly-controlled music market. While at a preliminary stage, the discussions highlight Tencent’s role as gatekeeper to China and the desire of Universal, whose revenues are surging as a result of online streaming, to expand beyond its traditional markets. French media group Vivendi, controlled by billionaire Vincent Bollore, said that Tencent would first buy 10% of Universal and have an option to buy a further 10%. Universal is the world’s biggest music label ahead of Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music, and is home to artists such as Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Drake and Kendrick Lamar. Both groups are also “considering areas of strategic commercial cooperation”, Vivendi said, raising questions among some analysts over the scope of the talks. “It is unclear if the stake sale depends on the parallel commercial deal with TME (Tencent Music Entertainment) and what economic transfers this deal involves,” said Jerry Dellis, an analyst at Jefferies.