Bulgaria is fourth in the ranking of EU countries attracting financing under the Juncker Investment Plan. The ranking of the European Commission places the EU member states according to the ratio between the financial resource attracted by the states under the Juncker Plan and their gross domestic product. Greece, Estonia and Portugal occupy the first three positions. So far, EUR 80 billion was allotted under the Juncker Investment Plan to all EU members. Bulgaria attracted EUR 472 million, which is expected to trigger EUR 2.4 billion in total investments, the report reads.

Over 6.5 million electronic vignettes for over BGN 325 million have been sold so far. For comparison, the revenue from the vignettes for the whole of 2018 is BGN 357 million. At a meeting with the Chamber of Bus and Coach Carriers in Asenovgrad, Prof. Oleg Asenov, a member of the Board of Directors of the Road Infrastructure Agency, reported an increase in revenues from transit traffic thanks to increased control. He explained that the e-vignettes and tolls collected could only be used for road construction and repair. To this end, a public board will be created to decide annually on the reconstruction of which road sections the tolls will be used. At the meeting with the bus carriers were presented the so-called "toll calculator" and the features of buying a route map through a remote demonstration center.

Bulgartransgaz SPJSC and Arkad Consortium Wednesday signed a contract for the delivery of materials, investment project design, development and putting into operation of the extended gas transmission network infrastructure from the Turkish-Bulgarian to the Bulgarian-Serbian border. The contract on the part of Bulgartransgaz was signed by Lyubomir Krustev. Bulgartransgaz CEO Vladimir Malinov pointed out that this is the beginning of an exceptionally important cooperation with Saudi Arabia, which will guarantee natural gas supplies to Bulgaria, the Balkans and Europe. The contract is worth USD 1.102 billion dollars, Malinov said. It has to be implemented within 615 days after its conclusion. That has to allow Bulgartransgaz to supply Serbia, then Hungary and finally, the hub in Austria. The project for the expansion of the gas transmission system from the Turkish-Bulgarian to the Bulgarian-Serbian border is of strategic significance for Bulgaria.

BGN 6.1 million is given to 10 companies as grants for partial reimbursement of social security and health insurance contributions for new employees. The contracts with the companies are related to the certified projects under the Investment Promotion Act. These are Multivac Bulgaria, Bulpros Consulting, Rollplast Group, Intrama Protek, Coca-Cola European Partners Services Bulgaria, Cargill Bulgaria, Upnetix, Experian Bulgaria, Coca Cola Hellenic IT Services and Behr-Hella Thermocontrol. They are located mainly in the area of Sofia, industrial zone Bozhurishte and in the cities of Plovdiv and Kostinbrod. They plan to create 1398 new jobs and make investments in the amount of BGN 80.9 million. By the contract, the investors undertake to maintain employment under these projects for at least 3 or 5 years depending on the category of the enterprise.

Bulgarian household electric heating appliances manufacturer Tesy has officially opened a new logistics centre - a project worth BGN 7 million. The facility which started operations last month, spreads on an area 4,500 sq m in Shumen, in northeastern Bulgaria. Tesy provides 8,000 new pallet spaces and will help double the loading capacity in logistics operations, Tesy, established in 1993, is part of Sofia-headquartered home and personal care products manufacturer Ficosota Holding. The holding company has over 850 employees in several European countries as well as four manufacturing plants in Shumen and Smyadovo. Tesy sells its products on more than 50 markets worldwide.

"We will create four industrial zones. The large industrial zone will be located in the northern territories - Kremikovtsi, Novi Iskar, Vrubnitsa. This is our hope of attracting a strategic investor in our city,” announced Sofia Mayor, Yordanka Fandakova, who participated in a forum "German investments in Bulgaria 1990-2017. German-Bulgarian trade relations 2001-2018”. Industrial zones will be built in Mladost, Nadezhda and Ovcha Kupel, but they will be smaller in size. "The territory, especially the one in Kremikovtzi, is extremely attractive with its transport connectivity - railway transport, proximity to the airport, roads. We are committed to provide subway connection to this area - overground, light subway. this is one process we are starting," the mayor announced, adding that in parallel the conditions for health care in the region would be created and training centers would be set up. Fandakova emphasized that Bulgaria is favored by foreign investors because of the infrastructure, people and tax policy.

Bulgarian fertilisers maker Neochim said that it has completed the planned annual maintenance of its production facilities and expects to resume nitrogen fertilisers production within the next few days. Neochim expects the first batch of ammonium nitrate after the relaunch of the facilities to be ready on September 21, the company said in a bourse filing. Earlier this year, the company said that it has decided to suspend its ammonia production activities indefinitely, due to the natural gas prices in the country, which, according to Neochim, are among the highest in the EU, and the rising cost of the EU emission allowances.

The European Union should not agree to another Brexit extension unless Britain underpins such a request with a proposal on how to unlock a domestic deadlock and avoid a no-deal Brexit, Germany’s powerful BDI industry association said on Wednesday. There must be no free ticket for another delay without a clear roadmap,” BDI Managing Director Joachim Lang told reporters in Berlin. If the British government submits a further request for an extension of the Brexit deadline under Article 50 of the European Treaties, it must be clear how London intends to avoid a bruising no-deal Brexit, Lang said. “Only then and with credible parliamentary support, would a further delay make sense in our view,” said Lang, adding that another extension without any conditions would simply increase business uncertainty. The latest postponement of the Brexit date to Oct. 31 did not help political negotiations, Lang said. Instead, many companies that based their business planning on the initial Brexit date of March 29 incurred unnecessary expenditure, he added.

Banks and investors rushed to gobble up $75bn in short-term cash the Federal Reserve made available in a second attempt to steady one of the world’s most important money markets. Dealers submitted requests for over $80bn in overnight borrowing, exceeding the maximum amount the New York Fed had placed on offer. That amount far exceeded the $53bn demanded when the central bank stepped into the market on Tuesday for the first time in more than a decade. The Fed had not previously used its repurchase agreement auction mechanism outside of small tests since the financial crisis in 2008 and encountered a hiccup on Tuesday as it attempted to open the facility for a large-scale operation. “US funding markets were shocked this week as a combination of factors reduced the amount of cash available to fund securities positions,” said Alex Roever, head of US rates strategy at JPMorgan Securities, one of the two dozen primary dealers that act as trading counterparties for the Fed.

Japanese exports dropped the most since January as China’s slowdown, the trade conflict between Washington and Beijing and softness in the global tech sector continued to weigh on overseas demand. The value of shipments abroad fell 8.2% in August from a year earlier, according to the finance ministry. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had estimated a 10% drop. Shipments to China suffered the second-largest drop in the last three years with sharp falls in chip-making equipment continuing. The trade balance showed a deficit of 136.3 billion yen. Slowing demand overseas, especially in China, has weighed on Japan’s exports, one of the economy’s main drivers of growth. The U.S.-China trade war makes the outlook for Japanese shipments uncertain, while Japan and South Korea have their own tensions. The threat of possible U.S. tariffs on Japanese cars and auto parts is another cause of uncertainty. President Donald Trump said a trade deal with Japan had been reached earlier this week, but didn’t say whether it would end his auto-tariff threat. Shipments to South Korea fell 9.4%, fallout from the trade dispute between the two neighbors as tensions over Japan’s colonial past continue to simmer.