CPI inflation remained at 2.9% y/y in August, similarly to its level in the previous month, the statistical institute (NSI) reported. On monthly basis, CPI inflation rose by 0.1% m/m, decelerating from 0.8% m/m in July. The stable headline inflation level was the result of a couple of factors with opposite directions, in particular a noticeable acceleration in food inflation, which was offset by deepening 3.9% y/y decline in fuel prices. Accordingly, we expect CPI inflation to remain close to its current level in the next few months as food prices are likely to keep an upward trend given stronger wholesale electricity prices on the energy exchange, while contribution from utility prices is likely to ease as the utility regulator confirmed that no hikes in the district heating and electricity prices for the households will take place in Q4’19. On the other hand, we think oil prices might eventually go up in the short run again, taking into account recent attack on Saudi Arabian oil processing plant, which may boost the fuel inflationary pressure on Bulgaria’s CPI in the next few months. However, a high base related to the fuel price from the previous year will contain the upward effect at least until end-October, in our view. We also note that pass-through from the slowing EU economies on the domestic price level is likely to continue in the short- and mid-run, thus keeping a containing effect on the domestic prices.

In August 2019 Bulgaria’s unemployment was at 5.3% and remains unchanged as compared to the previous month, this country's National Employment Agency announced. Unemployment fell with 0.3 percentage points on an annual basis. At the end of August a total of 172,643 unemployed Bulgarians were registered at the employment offices in this country, or 11,319 less as compared to the same month in 2018. 14,512 unemployed people started work. The number of job vacancies amounted to 17,244. Two thirds of them were in the private sector. Highest number of job vacancies are in the processing industry, education, administration, trade, services and industry.

A Saudi-led consortium was definitively reinstated on Monday as the builder of a new gas pipeline through Bulgaria, intended to hook up to Gazprom’s TurkStream project. Bulgaria’s Supreme Administrative Court announced that the Saudi-led group’s main competitors for the project had dropped a legal challenge relating to the award. The latest development brings to an end a long-running tussle between the Saudi-led consortium and its competitors for the project, a consortium of Luxembourg-based Completions Development, Italy’s Bonatti and Germany’s Max Streicher. Bulgaria’s state gas operator Bulgartransgaz had initially chosen the Saudi-led group — made up of Saudi Arabia’s Arkad Engineering and a joint venture including Switzerland’s ABB — to build the 474km pipeline. But Bulgartransgaz later decided to strike the winner off the tender for failing to supply documents needed to sign off the contract. Instead it accepted the offer of the second-placed consortium led by Completions Development. However, Bulgaria’s competition watchdog ruled in July that the operator should honour its previous commitments and sign a contract with the Saudi-led group.

The pharmaceutical company Sopharma JSC decreased its stake in the capital of Momina Krepost JSC, Veliko Tarnovo, selling 94,636 shares (5.6%) and falling to a share of 65.07%. Since the beginning of the year Sopharma has sold over 28% of the capital of Momina Krepost, as in previous transactions the buyer was Medical Supplies LTD. The price in all three deals is the same or BGN 3.16 per share. The total value of the three transactions is BGN 1.5 million and the last one is BGN 299,050. Medical Supplies was established on November 28, 2018. The company was initially named Bistritsa Project, but since January 28, 2019 is renamed Medical Supplies LTD. The capital of the company is BGN 1000. Momina Krepost JSC Veliko Tarnovo is on a difficult road, with the profit for 2018 being only BGN 22 thousand, after a loss of BGN 208 thousand in 2017.

Bulgarian real estate developer Fort Noks is seeking anti-trust approval to acquire control over local peer Capital Fort, according to a notice published on the Commission for Protection of Competition's website. Interested parties have until September 23 to submit their statements regarding the planned transaction to the regulator. Capital Fort's assets amounted to BGN 192.6 million at the end of 2018, according to its annual financial statement. The company booked revenue of BGN 18.5 million in 2018 and closed the year with a net profit of BGN 7.7 million. Fort Noks has three shareholders, who hold a stake of 1/3 of the company's capital each - private individuals Stanislav Parhomenko and Georgi Ivanov, and local company Variant Sofia.

Bulgarian diversified group Doverie United Holding said that its unit Doverie Capital sold on September 12 its entire 83.136% stake in local textile company Riton-P for an undisclosed price. Doverie Capital sold 244,570 shares in Riton-P. Earlier this year, Riton-P cut its capital to BGN 294,182 from BGN 1.2 million. Riton-P, established in 1939, produces clothing at its factory in the town of Panagyurishte. The company exports the majority of its output to EU countries and the US. Doverie United Holding has 20 subsidiaries active in various sectors of the economy.

Bulgarian farming group BG Agro said that its wholly-owned unit BG Agro Skladovo Stopanstvo will acquire and absorb BG Agro Rastitelna Zashtita and BG Agro Trade Company. Currently, BG Agro owns 100% of both BG Agro Rastitelna Zashtita and BG Agro Trade Company. BG Agro has been actively restructuring its units in the past few years. Earlier this year, BG Agro's unit Agrosmart BG absorbed BG Agro General Toshevo, Agriculture, Agroair and Agrotil. In December 2018, BG Agro Trade Company absorbed BG Agro Innovation and Investment and Bulport, while BG Agro Rastitelna Zashtita absorbed BG Agro - Shumen.

Germany wants to cap the European Union’s next budget for 2021-27 at 1% of the continent’s GDP, a scenario that would still see Berlin contribute some 10 billion euros more every year. “We will conduct the MFF (Multiannual Financial Framework or the long-term EU budget) negotiations on the basis of 1% of the EU27 GNI,” read the document, which Germany is presenting to its EU peers during ministerial talks in Brussels. “Losing the UK as one of the largest next contributors to the MFF means that even with this limit, contributions of the remaining Member States will increase significantly.” Germany - the EU’s largest economy and the biggest contributor to the bloc’s joint coffers - also demanded that its poorer regions benefiting from EU development aid should not be excessively hit in any revamp of the so-called cohesion funds. It demanded “strong or additional” incentives on migration and climate projects, and insisted that all EU spending should be subject to rule of law conditionality as the bloc moves to curb aid to members like Poland or Hungary that stand accused of violating core rules by undercutting democratic standards.

The United Auto Workers union began a nationwide strike against General Motors, with some 46,000 members walking off the job after contract talks hit an impasse. The move to strike, which the Wall Street Journal described as the first major stoppage at GM in more than a decade, came after the manufacturer's four-year contract with workers expired without an agreement on a replacement. Local union leaders met in Detroit "and opted to strike at midnight on Sunday," the UAW said on its Twitter account. "This is our last resort," Terry Dittes, the union's lead negotiator with GM, told a news conference after the meeting. "We are standing up for the fundamental rights of working people in this country." UAW officials said the two sides remained far apart in the contract negotiations, with disagreements on wages, health care benefits, the status of temporary workers and job security. GM's last major strike was in 2007 when 73,000 workers at more than 89 facilities walked off the job for two days. In a statement, GM said it was "disappointing" that the UAW's leadership had decided to call the strike, saying it had presented a "strong offer" in contract negotiations.

The slowdown in China’s economy deepened in August, with growth in industrial production at its weakest 17-1/2 years amid spreading pain from a trade war with the United States and softening domestic demand. Retail sales and investment gauges worsened too, data released on Monday showed, reinforcing views that China is likely to cut some key interest rates this week for the first time in over three years to prevent a sharper slump in activity. Despite a slew of growth-boosting measures since last year, the world’s second-largest economy has yet to stabilize, and analysts say Beijing needs to roll out more stimulus to ward off a sharper slowdown. Industrial output growth unexpectedly weakened to 4.4% in August from the same period a year earlier, the slowest pace since February 2002 and receding from 4.8% in July. Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast a pick-up to 5.2%. In particular, the value of delivered industrial exports fell 4.3% on-year, the first monthly decline since at least two years, Reuters records showed, reflecting the toll that the escalating Sino-U.S. trade war is taking on Chinese manufacturers.