Ernst and Young have just done an ‘ATTRACTIVENESS SURVEY 2008' covering all South East Europe countries, polled through 216 international corporate executives. Bulgaria came third in overall general economic attractiveness and ranked highly in all-round perception on corporate taxation, labour costs and flexibility of labour legislation. The Bulgarian Government National Statistics Institute stated that 60% of the 5.2 billion €uros of foreign investment into the Bulgaria economy in the whole of... [read more]

In 2007, the US housing market crashed, and Europe's housing market slowed. But house prices in Asia-Pacific gained momentum, according to the year end report of the Global Property Guide. Bulgaria saw the world's strongest house price growth at 30.6% (15.4% in real terms) to end-Q3 2007 from a year earlier. Annual house price change 2007 (%), adjusted for inflation  Countries  Inflation-adjusted  Nominal  Bulgaria  15.42 &nbs... [read more]

Bulgaria will definitively join the pool of European countries who have adopted a flat tax, beginning next year, Bulgaria's new Economy and Energy Minister Petar Dimitrov said on August 15. The country will finally venture into the daunting reform after the idea had received a "no-go" on several occasions over the past few years. Then, most politicians said it intimidated the poorer strata of society, while the public did not take any interest in the issue. Now that a quarter of Europe is painte... [read more]

Bulgaria's National Social Security Institute (NSSI) decided to increase the minimal pension as of October 1 2007. The changes envision a reduction of social security installment from 23 to 22 per cent on a pensions fund for people born before January 1 1960, and from 18 to 17 per cent for people born after December 31 1959. Social security installments to the unemployment fund will be reduced from three per cent to one per cent, NSSI said as quoted by Bulgarian National Radio. As a result of th... [read more]

Russia is pressuring Bulgaria and Greece to sell their shares in the Bourgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline by attaching new conditions for financial responsibility in case the two countries fail to fulfil their quotas for the pipeline. The three countries' companies to take part in the project execution were in negotiations in the Greek capital of Athens with the consultancy company Paul Hastings, mediapool.bg reported. On August 27, the Russian consortium of state-controlled companies Rosneft, Transneft a... [read more]

Bulgaria's gross foreign debt reached 21.18 billion euro at the end of June 2007. This is an increase of 1.5 billion euro, or 7.7 per cent, over the first six months of 2007 and its share in the GDP reached 79.2 per cent, according to Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) statistics, as quoted by Dnevnik daily. The annual gross foreign debt increase was 22.5 per cent. Long-term debt at the end of June 2007 was 14.6 billion euro, 69 per cent of the total debt. Short-term debt was 6.57 billion euro, 31 per cent... [read more]

Our current overview of the residential market place, particularly in London and the South-East, is that there is evidence of prices leveling off in the mid-market sectors, partially reflecting the consistent interest rate hikes seen this year in the UK. There is no evidence of prices reducing and the key driver is that demand continues to exceed supply. UK interest rates... The combination of recent turmoil in the financial markets, the US Federal reserve's prompt response in cutting borrowing costs a... [read more]