According to Bulgarian National Bank data, EUR 624 million has been transferred to Bulgaria from Bulgarians living and working abroad in the period from the beginning of the year until 30 June, 2019. The biggest sums have been transferred from Germany, USA and Spain. In some households the money transfers from abroad are for no less than EUR 1200 a year. Economists say that after returning to this country, the Bulgarians who have worked abroad continue to pump money into the national economy. The money coming in from abroad is also important to Bulgarian manufacturers because they use it to buy commodities on the local market and that boosts company revenues.

The assets managed by Bulgarian insurance companies increased 7% year-on-year to BGN 8.13 billion at the end of June, the country's central bank said. On a quarterly comparison basis, the assets managed by Bulgarian insurers rose 2.3%. The assets of general insurance companies added 4.9% year-on-year to BGN 5.80 billion at the end of June, while the assets managed by life insurance companies increased by 12.5% to BGN 2.34 billion. The assets of general insurance companies made up 71.3% of the sector's total, while the assets of life insurance companies formed 28.7%. Securities other than shares formed 49.1% of the insurance companies' assets at end-June, up from 47.3% a year earlier. Shares accounted for 13.4% of insurers' total assets at the end of June, while claims from insurance operations constituted 11.4%.

The Competition Commission will again look at Nova Broadcasting Group's request to acquire 100% of Net Info. Nova TV owns 70% of the Net Info sites, 30% is split between Hristo Hristov - 3 and Radosvet Radev - 27%. The regulator's announcement shows that the Supreme Administrative Court has ordered the CPC to review the acquisition. The CPC recalls that last year it stopped the acquisition of Net Info by Nova because of pending litigation.

Bulgarian port services provider Port Flot-Burgas said that local diversified group ARZ Holding-2002, its majority shareholder, has reduced its stake to 69.38% of the company's share capital. ARZ Holding has decreased is stake in several deals on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange concluded on September 5 for an undisclosed price. ARZ Holding has cut its stake to 71.18% in deals on the Sofia bourse concluded on September 4. At the same time, local Pension Insurance Company Toplina, through three of the funds it manages, has increased its stake in Port Flot-Burgas to 14.3% from 8.25%. Port Flot-Burgas shares started trading on the BSE last month. At the time of its listing, the company was 99.99% owned by ARZ Holding-2002, according to data published in the commercial register. Local private investor Dimitar Hristov controlled the remainder. ARZ Holding-2002 is fully owned by Great Britain-registered Monterina Ltd.

British fintech company Tide has opened its office in Bulgaria. The business banking platform employs about 100 people. The Tide has already leased nearly 2,000 square meters in the metropolitan Megapark, owned by Lion's Head Investments. Until now, the company has used a shared office space in Sofia, which is standard practice for companies entering a new market. After conducting a long-term business plan, they are usually focused on renting their own office, where the cost per job is significantly lower. By the end of the year, the company plans to expand the team by over 80%. The design and furnishing of the space will follow the concept of London-based offices and employees will be actively involved in the planning process. According to the executive director of consulting firm Cushman & Wakefield Forton, leases for offices between 1,200 and 3,000 square meters, which until recently were considered regular, are rather exceptions in 2019. Lease negotiations are distributed in the lower limit for areas up to 500 square meters and in the upper - for 5000 square meters and more, which according to business consultants is due to the consolidation of tenants.

Regional Inspectorate of Environment and Water (RIEW) - Stara Zagora issued a compulsory administrative measure to stop boilers # 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 of Brikel TPP’s combustion plant for heat energy. The measure was imposed because of the established use of an unauthorized type of fuel - biomass, in violation of the issued Comprehensive permit of the company. A company inspection on 3 September revealed the presence of biomass on the conveyor belt, which supplies fuel to a boiler, as well as the storage of large quantities of baled straw with access to the plant. The imposed compulsory administrative measure on Brikel TPP is in view of the inability of the operator to guarantee compliance with environmental legislation by providing the necessary conditions for compliance of the operation of the installation with the current Complex Permit. The term of the prohibition is until the infringement is removed.

Bulgarian start-up airline Holiday Europe has launched operations on August 24 with its first flight from Turkey's Antalya to Germany's Nuremberg. Sofia-based Holiday Europe has started to operate flights with a single Airbus 321-200 aircraft and will expand its fleet to seven A321-200 by October. The company aims to be among the top-ranking European tourist charter carriers by 2022. Eastablished earlier this year, Holiday Europe has come a long way to be able to operate flights in such a short time thanks to the logistics agreements executed with Turkey's Onur Air. Holiday Europe, established under Bulgarian AOC (Air Operating Certificate), is owned by private investors Petko Christoff and Balabaner Aibars and has a registered capital of BGN 1.2 million. Onur Air is a Turkish low-cost carrier based at Istanbul Ataturk Airport.

British MPs have rejected Prime Minister Boris Johnson's second attempt to call an early general election. The motion for an election needed the support of more than 400 MPs but gained the backing of only 293 lawmakers. Opposition MPs had earlier confirmed they would not back the push for a 15 October poll, insisting a law blocking a no-deal Brexit must be implemented. The British parliament is due to be suspended later today until 14 October, two weeks before the country is due to leave the European Union on 31 October. Mr Johnson vowed to secure a Brexit deal at a crucial European Union summit on 17 October. "This government will press on with negotiating a deal, while preparing to leave without one," he told parliament. "I will go to that crucial summit on October the 17th and no matter how many devices this parliament invents to tie my hands, I will strive to get an agreement in the national interest. "This government will not delay Brexit any further." Earlier, a bill seeking to block a no-deal exit passed into law, receiving assent from the Queen.

Analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. have created an index to gauge the impact of Donald Trump’s tweets on U.S. interest rates, which they say is on the rise. The ‘Volfefe Index’, named after Trump’s mysterious ‘covfefe’ tweet, suggests that the president’s tweets are having a statistically significant impact on Treasury yields. The number of market-moving Trump tweets has ballooned in the past month, with those including words such as ‘China,’ ‘billion,’ ‘products,’ ‘democrats,’ and ‘great,’ most likely to affect prices, the analysts found. Trade and monetary policy have become an increasing focus for the executive branch, and everything from casual sentiments to seemingly formal policy intentions have been disseminated, globally and instantaneously, via this carefully scrutinized social media platform,” analysts led by Josh Younger and Munier Salem wrote. “In response, a broad swath of assets from single-name stocks to macro products have found their price dynamics increasingly beholden to a handful of tweets from the commander in chief.”

Japan’s economy grew at a slower pace than initially estimated in the second quarter as the U.S.-China trade war prompted a downward revision of business spending, intensifying calls for the central bank to deepen stimulus this month. Weakness in the global economy and worsening trade protectionism have emerged as risks to growth and added some pressure for the Bank of Japan (BOJ) to expand stimulus when it meets next week. The economy grew an annualized 1.3% in April-June, revised Cabinet Office data showed Monday, weaker than the preliminary reading for 1.8% annualized growth and in line with economists’ median forecast. The annualized growth rate translates into a quarter-on-quarter expansion of 0.3% from January-March, compared with a preliminary reading for a 0.4% gain. “There’s a possibility growth will turn negative in the October-December quarter,” said Izuru Kato, chief economist at Totan Research. “If worries about such negative growth deepen (in the coming months), the Bank of Japan could consider lowering interest rates further into negative territory.” Capital spending rose just 0.2% from the previous quarter, much lower than a preliminary 1.5% rise and the median forecast for a 0.7% increase.