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Industry Watch released its regular report on cost of labor
In the Winter 2006 report, we update the comparative index of the cost of labor in the biggest cities. Sofia is still the most expensive place to find basic labor - about 6% more expensive than Varna and some 20% more expensive than Plovdiv.The cheapest labor may be found in Vidin – about half as cheap as the labor in Sofia.Amon... -
New credit curbing measures scheduled for adoption.
New measure targeting mortgage lending growth through amendments in Ordinance #8 on the Capital Adequacy of Banks has been declared by BNB. According to new requirements banks could lend without penalty up to 50% of the evaluation of real estate used as collateral. If the credit amount exceeds this share, banks have to provide a... -
Natural gas consumption is likely to continue to expand gradually.
After 2003 the consumption of natural gas shows signs of gradual increase both in terms of volume and as part of the overall energy consumption in the country. Such trend can be attributed to some market and regulatory factors. In accordance with the agreements during the EU accession process Bulgaria obtained the right to tax t... -
Bulgarian lev is not overvalued.
The attempts to estimate the “real price” of the lev is apparently becoming a live question. The debate which some analysts are starting now may result overdue when the actual the euro currency substitution happens in Bulgaria.This kind of debates caused the start of the discussion on that whether or not the Bulgarian lev was o... -
The crisis with the Russian gas supplies underlines the current situation of the Bulgarian gas market.
The crisis with the supplies of Russian gas to Europe after the aggravation of the political conflict between Russia and Ukraine stresses the need of more detailed view of Bulgarian gas market.... -
According to the new EU budget deal Bulgaria may get around 11.1 billion euro for the 2007-2013 period.
The agreed EU budget deal for the 2007-2013 period finally stipulated that Bulgaria may receive about 11. 1 billion euro. However, the real amount that Bulgaria will receive depends on a variety of conditions like project formulation and some levels of co-financing by the Bulgarian government. There are at least two reasons whic... -
The Bulgarian economy in 2006
The current analysis covers our forecasts for the dynamics of the main economic indicators in 2006. ... -
GDP Growth Slows Down to 5.7% y-o-y.
GDP growth decelerated for the first time in two years. For the year till September, real economic growth was 5.7% which almost coincides with Industry Watch 2005 forecast (5.8%). Fixed capital investments grew surprisingly quick - by over 25% in Q3 2005 on the basis of the same quarter 2004 - while we expect investments growth ...