Parliament adopted on first reading the 2020 State Budget Bill proposed by the Finance Ministry. The Bill sets the expenditures and revenues at BGN 46,826.5 million each. Next year the GDP growth is projected at 3.3%, driven by domestic demand. Inflation is forecast at 2.3% at the end of 2020 and at 2.1% in mid-2020. The unemployment rate is expected to slow down its decrease and reach 4.1%. The 2020 state budget prioritizes education, healthcare, defence, pension policy and income policy. Next year Bulgaria's contribution to the EU budget will amount to BGN 1,397.4 million, up by BGN 115.3 million from 2019.

Bulgaria's consumer prices rose by 2.4% year-on-year in October, after increasing by 2.3% in September, the National Statistical Institute (NSI) said. On a monthly comparison basis, consumer prices added 0.8% in October, after edging down by 0.3% in September. Prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages, which have the largest weight in the consumer basket, increased 4.7% year-on-year during the review period, while prices of housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels rose 3.1%. Prices in the transport segment decreased by 3.4% on the year. Bulgaria’s EU-harmonised consumer price index (HICP) added 1.6% on the year in October and edged up 0.2% compared to September.

Sofia-based research and development centre DHL Enterprise Software Solutions has expanded its operations through the opening of a branch in Czech Republic's capital Prague. DHL ESS is part of DHL Freight, the ground transport subdivision of Deutsche Post DHL. The new branch, which was inaugurated last month, will support the team in Sofia in its work on the transformation and consolidation of the IT systems of DHL Freight. The new system infrastructure of DHL ESS will speed up and make easier the work processes through automation and increased efficiency in the handling of millions of shipments every year. From 2017 until now the team of DHL ESS has increased six times in size. It is expected that DHL ESS' headcount will keep expanding in the future, mainly with Java developers and QA Automation experts. Founded in 2016, DHL ESS is administratively under the management of DHL Logistics Bulgaria, a Sofia-based unit of mail and logistics group Deutsche Post DHL, which represents DHL Freight in the country. The research and development centre is responsible for the development and maintenance of a comprehensive transport management system (TMS) related to the biggest business transformation in DHL.

According to the Commercial Register of November 12, Piraeus Bank Bulgaria has officially been acquired and has been deleted as an independent company, with which the institution is already formally part of Postbank's portfolio, making Postbank fourth largest bank on the market. Thus, 19 banks and five branches of foreign institutions remain operating on the Bulgarian market. By next year the number is expected to decline by at least one more, after the completion of DSK’s acquisition of Expressbank earlier this year comes into effect. In the Commercial Register, the merger is already reflected, so that Piraeus no longer exists as a legal entity, the business is transferred to that of Postbank, and the General Terms and Conditions of the successor contracts, tariffs and interest rates now apply to the clients.

The Corporate Commercial Bank's bankruptcy trustees have announced that they are launching a procedure to lease the building in Sofia, where the bank's headquarters used to be. The building is massive and in a prestigious location in the center of Sofia, where two bankrupt banks used to be - first the International Investment and Development Bank and then the CCB. The successful leasing of this building will undoubtedly provide the CCB trustees with serious current proceeds, which will help them finance the bankruptcy expenses of the bank and thus increase the funds that the trustees distribute to the bank's creditors. In this year, the trustees have already made the first distribution of money collected from them, as well as from their previous quaestors, from redeeming tangible and financial assets of the bank. It is about BGN 570 million, which was distributed among the creditors of CCB according to their share in the total amount of receivables from the credit institution recognized by the court. According to unofficial data, more than BGN 300 million has been accumulated in the accounts of the trustees of CCB.

Bulgarian insurance broker Astra Brokers intends to launch operations in Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, according to a statement by Bulgaria's financial regulator. The Financial Supervision Commission has informed its peers in the three countries about the company's plans. Astra Brokers, established in July, is a wholly-owned unit of local Astra Vision Group. Astra Vision Group is 80% owned by a private individual. The remaining 20% stake is controlled by private individual through fully owned company BreFix Technologies.

Bulgarian state-owned Port of Burgas said that its net profit edged up to BGN 1.06 million in the first nine months of 2019 from BGN 960,000 in the same period of last year. Port of Burgas' revenue rose to BGN 6.5 million in the January-September period of 2019 from BGN 5.7 million in the comparable period of 2018. The port operator serviced 409,000 tonnes of cargo, up by 25.8% compared with the same period of last year, and 21% higher than the company's business plan. The rise was mostly due to a sharp increase in fertilisers handled at the Black Sea port - 125,000 t. in January-September, compared to just 9,000 t. in the prior-year period. The company's operating expenses increased to BGN 5.4 million in the review period from BGN 4.7 million the year before. Personnel expenses rose the most - to BGN 2.3 million from BGN 1.9 million a year earlier. The average salary paid by the company increased by an annual 22.4% to BGN 1,390. The number of people employed by Port of Burgas decreased to 175 at the end of September from 178 a year earlier. The company also reported a notable increase in working capital - to BGN 2.2 million at the end of September from BGN 691,000 at the end of 2018.

Less than three weeks after starting trial production of cars in China, Tesla has announced the location of its second factory outside the United States: Berlin. In a tweet late Tuesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the plant would build batteries, powertrains and vehicles, "starting with the Model Y." The factory is also expected to produce the Model 3, the company's best-selling car. Tesla has already posted jobs for construction, operations, engineering and manufacturing workers for the factory in the German capital. The US carmaker did not say when its factory would open, or how many cars would be produced there. Tesla declined to provide additional details. The move takes the great electric car race to Germany, the manufacturing heart of Europe and the home of Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW. Volkswagen has made the most aggressive move of the traditional auto companies into electric vehicles, announcing plans to invest €30 billion ($33 billion) to electrify its entire product lineup over the next four years.

Google will soon offer checking accounts to consumers, becoming the latest Silicon Valley heavyweight to push into finance. The project, code-named Cache, is expected to launch next year with accounts run by Citigroup Inc. C -1.55% and a credit union at Stanford University, a tiny lender in Google’s backyard. Big tech companies see financial services as a way to get closer to users and glean valuable data. Apple Inc. introduced a credit card this summer. Amazon.com Inc. has talked to banks about offering checking accounts. Facebook Inc. is working on a digital currency it hopes will upend global payments. Their ambitions could challenge incumbent financial-services firms, which fear losing their primacy and customers. They are also likely to stoke a reaction in Washington, where regulators are already investigating whether large technology companies have too much clout. The tie-ups between banking and technology have sometimes been fraught. Apple irked its credit-card partner, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., by running ads that said the card was “designed by Apple, not a bank.” Major financial companies dropped out of Facebook’s crypto project after a regulatory backlash.

China’s factory output growth slowed significantly more than expected in October, as weakness in global and domestic demand and the drawn-out Sino-U.S. trade war weighed on broad segments of the world’s second-largest economy. Industrial production rose 4.7% year-on-year in October, data from the National Bureau of Statistics released on Thursday showed, below the median forecast of 5.4% growth in a Reuters poll and slower than September’s 5.8%. Indicators showed other sectors also slowed significantly and missed forecasts with retail sales growth back near a 16-year trough and fixed asset investment growth the weakest on record. The disappointing numbers show China off to a rough start in the final three months of 2019 and will bolster calls for Beijing to roll out fresh support after third quarter growth slowed to its weakest in almost three decades, with factory production bruised by the trade war with Washington.