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Growth of housing prices slowed down
We have recently witnessed various forecasts made by analysts and market participants for new records on the housing market in 2007. According to released by NSI data however, growth of housing prices in regional cities in Q2 of 2007 was more moderate (5.4% compared to 9.3% in Q1). The relatively high price growth in the beginni... -
Household assets grow steadily
In recent few years we observe in Bulgaria rising prices of long-term financial assets, strong acceleration of competition in the financial sector, introduction of new investment vehicles, rising real estate prices, considerable credit expansion with declining real interest rates and record GDP growth. This combined with improv... -
Are new credit restrictions necessary?
The BNB statistics for May showed that for the first time in several years the growth of corporate credit exceeded the growth of household credit. Meanwhile, the trend towards acceleration of credit expansion in general continued. This data signaled that it is time for new restrictions on credit to be introduced. That is why it ... -
Industry Watch released its regular report “Wealth & the Finance Industry in Bulgaria”- Q2 2007.
The expansion of the real (non-financial) sector credit considerably accelerated, as for the first time in several years corporate credit growth exceeded household credit growth. According to our estimate, the growth of household holdings of shares remained considerable (91% annually as of May).Meanwhile, pension funds continue ... -
Are housing prices really rising fast?
After the growth of average housing prices in Bulgaria exceeded 20% in Q1 compared to the beginning of 2006 many analysts and market participants forecasted new records in 2007. Meanwhile, the asked housing prices in the premium segment in major cities reached EUR 1000-1200 as of May-June. The overview of the current situation i... -
Economic policy needs new stimulus
Research has shown that the human mind easily recognizes odd or unnecessary things rather than missing (but necessary) things in a given environment or situation. For instance, when there is a letter on a sheet of paper with digits, the human mind notices quicker this, rather than the missing digit from 0 to 9 on the same sheet.... -
Development of the insurance market after the EU accession
European insurance companies continue to express considerable interest towards Bulgarian insurance market – for almost half a year 113 insurance companies and 103 insurance brokers have declared before the Financial Supervision Commission their intention to operate in Bulgaria. Around 1/3 of the insurance companies are from Grea... -
Political crisis and chances for Bulgarian economy
Political crisis in the middle of 2007 was expected and to some extent necessary. Leading parties in the governing coalition experience problems, which result not only from personal conflicts. It comes down to clarification of ideologies – respectively to the choice of development path for the Bulgarian economy. Some important a...