The stock of bank loans rose by 5.5% y/y in nominal terms in August, easing from the 6.0% y/y increases in the previous two months, the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) reported. Real loan growth also decelerated to 2.5% y/y. Lending growth might decelerate further in the next few months given easing domestic consumption and rising caution due to the slowing economic activity signals. The lending growth deceleration was on the back of slowing corporate lending, which rose by 3.4% y/y in August. On the other hand, retail loan growth accelerated to 8.8% y/y in August, reflecting further strengthening of housing lending activity. Mortgage loan growth picked up to 12.4% y/y, possibly on the back of the very low interest rates. Consumer credit growth remained unchanged m/m at 11.2% y/y in August, largely supported by the still ongoing strong growth of wages and employment. The share of bad loans edged down by 3bps m/m to 11.3% of the total in August. The share of bad corporate loans however rose for the first time since Jan 2019, to 14.2% of the total, while the share of bad retail loans fell to 8.3%.

Deposits of Bulgaria's non-government sector rose by an annual 7.3% to BGN 81.6 billion at the end of August, down from a 7.7% annual rise at the end of July, the central bank, BNB, said. Deposits at the end of August were equal to 70.5% of Bulgaria's estimated gross domestic product in 2019. Deposits of households increased by an annual 8.2% to BGN 53.7 billion at the end of August. Deposits of non-financial corporations totalled BGN 24.6 billion, up by 3.1% year-on-year, while deposits of financial corporations added 29.7% to BGN 3.4 billion.

Belgium-based soda ash maker Solvay will invest EUR 185 million over the next three years in expanding the capacity of two of its facilities - one in Bulgaria and one in the U.S. Solvay is planning to expand the sodium bicarbonate capacity of its plant in the Bulgarian town of Devnya by 200 kilotonnes. Solvay also intends to increase its soda ash production capacity by 600 kilotonnes at its trona-based Green River site in Wyoming. The new production line at the Bulgarian plant is expected to be operational by the end of 2020. It will produce SOLVAIR sorbents, sodium-based solutions that treat exhaust gases from factories, incineration plants and ships and BicarZ, sodium bicarbonate buffer for animal nutrition. Solvay's Bulgarian unit - Solvay Sodi, booked a consolidated net profit of BGN 127.8 million in 2018 and generated revenue of BGN 448.7 million.

Two private equity firms - London-based BC Partners and U.S.-based Providence Equity - are analysing the Bulgarian Telecommunications Company (BTC) as a possible acquisition target. Ten investors have shown interest in the telecommunications company, but BTC has received only three binding offers so far, as one of them does not meet the requirements. BC Partners is seeking to acquire BTC through one of its units - regional cable and television operator United Group, which is active in Southeast Europe. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) holds a minority stake in United Group. BTC's current owner, a consortium led by Bulgarian businessman and comprising various minority investors, including VTC Capital and Luxembourg-based Viva Telekom, acquired the telecommunications company in a EUR 330 million deal concluded in August 2016. The deal was later challenged by British Virgin Islands-registered special-purpose investment vehicle Empreno Ventures and its Luxembourg-registered 100%-owned subsidiary LIC Telecommunications, which claimed that the sale was a sham and ought to be revised. However, in July BTC announced that England and Wales High Court (Commercial Court) has rejected the complaints.

Bulgaria's Groupama Insurance, a unit of France's Groupama Group, is planning to offer several types of insurance policies on the Romanian market, according to a notice by Bulgaria's Financial Supervision Commission. The Financial Supervision Commission has asked Groupama Insurance to provide additional information and documents regarding its plans to offer its services in Romania. Groupama entered the Bulgarian market in 2008. In July, another Bulgarian unit of the French insurance group - Groupama Zhivotozastrahovane, agreed to acquire 100% of Express Life Insurance from Hungarian banking group OTP and its Bulgarian unit Expressbank.

Bulgaria's state-owned coal-fired thermal power plant (TPP) Maritsa Iztok 2 has signed two deals worth a total of EUR 9.35 million with London-based Toshiba International (Europe), a unit of Japanese giant Toshiba Corporation. The larger deal, worth EUR 7.35 million, envisages supply of spare parts for turbine, electric, and monitoring and control equipment. The other deal, worth EUR 2 million, concerns the provision of consultancy services during TPP Maritsa Iztok 2's planned and unplanned repairs of such equipment. TPP Maritsa Iztok 2 has eight operating units with a total installed capacity of 1,620 MW.

Cosmetics producer Bulgarian Rose pocketed sales revenue of BGN 1.82 million in August, sharply exceeding its forecast for BGN 302,000 in monthly revenue. The company's accumulated sales in the first eight months of the year amounted to BGN 4.47 million. Bulgarian Rose generated revenue of BGN 3.83 million in the January-August period of 2018. Sales in September are projected at BGN 302,000, down from the company's September 2018 sales of BGN 632,000. In July, Bulgarian Rose terminated its deal with Beijing Fangcaoziyan Cosmetics Trading Co. for exports of cosmetic products and rose oil due to the Chinese company's systemic failure to adhere to the agreement. Karlovo-based Bulgarian Rose, established in 1948, manufactures cosmetic products for face, body, and hair using rose oil and locally-grown herbs. Bulgarian Rose, part of blue-chip industrial group Stara Planina Hold, has stores in nine cities across Bulgaria.

The world’s fourth largest emitter, Russia, has formally adopted the Paris Agreement, drawing an end to months of national tensions on the subject. “The Russian Federation has accepted the Paris Agreement and is becoming a full-fledged participant of this international instrument,” Ruslan Edelgeriev, the president’s climate advisor, told the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York, before proceeding to list the country’s climate contributions. “Russia is already playing a leading role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions compared to the 1990 base-line,” he continued. “Our total emissions over this period have decreased almost by half. This represent 41 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent which on the planetary scale has allowed to cumulatively hold global warming for an entire year.” This baseline maps to the collapse of the Soviet Union and its vast industries, making it a relatively easy baseline for the country to promote past success.

Facebook Inc. agreed to acquire CTRL-Labs, a technology startup that is building software to let people control a digital avatar using only their thoughts. The world’s largest social network is paying between $500 million and $1 billion, according to people familiar with the deal. The closely held four-year-old startup, which has dozens of employees and has raised tens of millions in venture capital, uses a bracelet to measure neuron activity in a subject’s arm to determine movement that person is thinking about, even if they aren’t physically moving. That neuron activity is then translated into movement on a digital screen. Facebook declined to comment on the price of the acquisition. Technology like CTRL-Labs’s may someday be a crucial part of products like augmented reality glasses, where a user might want to control a computer without the need for buttons or a keyboard. “Your hands could be in your pocket, behind you,” explained Thomas Reardon, chief executive officer of CTRL-Labs, at an industry conference last December. “It’s the intention [to move], not the movement” itself that controls the avatar, he said.

The government of the Chinese tech hub of Hangzhou is assigning officials to 100 local companies including tech group Alibaba, in the latest example of a tightening of the ties between the state and private sector. The move, described as a local initiative, highlights one of the many flashpoints in China’s tense relationship with the US. Washington’s angst at the blurred lines between the state and its tech companies has already prompted Beijing to downplay its “Made in China 2025” industrial policy blueprint, which sets out sectors in which it wants domestic companies to dominate at home. Companies including Alibaba already have communist cells embedded in their operations and top executives spend much of their time dealing with government officials on policy and other issues. Other big enterprises corralled into the initiative include automaker Geely. Soft drinks group Wahaha was also part of the group, according to Chinese state media.