Economic Development News III | Икономика III

[Turnovec]

Japanese Yazaki to Invest 20 mln Еuro In Bulgarian Electic Plant

Yazaki, the Japanese producer of electric and electronic systems for the automotive industry, plans to invest 20 mln euro in the plant it is building in Yambol, South-eastern Bulgaria, reported Dnevnik.

The electric systems factory should be ready by early 2009.

At the beginning of 2007, Yazaki won a sealed-bid tender for a 51,400 sq m municipal plot in Yambol. It paid 411,100 levs and pledged to invest no less than 45 mln levs in production facilities no later than 24 months of the receipt of the construction permit.

The Japanese company plans to create 2,685 jobs by Jun 2010.

-------------------------------

Czech Wants to Invest in Bulgarian Energetic

Over 680 million EUR are Czech investments in our country for the last year. For the same period the commodity exchange raised with 52%. These calculations were pointed out by Bulgarian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivailo Kalfin on the opening of the Bulgarian-Czech business forum. Czech Premier Mirek Topolanek also attended the opening of the forum.

Tourist stream from Czech for first 8 months of this year are 135 000, which means 26% more than 2006. Kalfin expressed convenience Bulgaria will continue to create optimum good conditions for Czech firms to invest in Bulgaria.

Topolanek said Bulgaria and Czech Republic are especially connected in energetic security, which is extremely important for the both countries.

Both countries are interested in building of NPP ‘Belene', added Topolanek. Czech businessmen show enormous interest to co-operate in Bulgarian Energetic.

[ВОДА]

Bulgaria Insist Russia to Guarantee for Power Project Supplies


Officials from Bulgarian cabinet will demand for guarantee the oil and natural gas supplies for the Burgas-Alexandroupolis and South Stream projects, informed from Dnevnik.

Bulgaria's Ministers of Regional Development Asen Gagauzov and Economy Minister Peter Dimitrov left on Wednesday for Moscow for paying an unexpected visit.





The Bulgarian officials will meet there with Russia's Economy Minister Viktor Hristenko and Alexei Miler, chief of Gazprom.

The guarantees that will be demanded by the Bulgarians could be provided either by the Russian side or by Italy's ENI, the daily informed.

The Russian side demanded for signing a declaration of political commitment to the project but the Bulgarian side refused, sources told Dnevnik.

Bulgaria's position is that local gas distributor Bulgargaz should have a majority stake in the joint venture it will incorporate with Gazprom.

[JuMPer]

GDP to exceed inflation in 2009 with high growth levels to continue post 2009; as this years inflation is around 8% compared to 6.5% GDP growth.

В България ръстът на БВП ще изпревари инфлацията през 2009 г.

Последна редакция: 09.11.2007, 12:47

Публикуване: 09.11.2007, 12:20

Автор: Емил Бонев

Размер на шрифта: a a a
Ръстът на БВП ще изпревари този на инфлацията през 2009 г., прогнозират от БСК за специализирано издание на BUSINESSEUROPE, което излиза два пъти годишно.

Показателите за 2007 г. сочат инфлация на потребителските цени от 8%, срещу реален ръст на БВП от 6.5%. За 2008г. темпът на ръст на БВП се запазва, а този на инфлацията пада с половин процентен пункт. През 2009г. предвиденият ръст на БВП е 7%, а този на инфлацията - 6%.

Същевременно се очаква слаб спад в безработицата (6.5% през 2009 г., срещу 7% т.г.) и в ръста на заетостта (от 4.3% т.г. до 3% през 2009 г.)

В изданието са дадени и средностатистически данни за целия Европейски съюз и за страните от Евро зоната (само за 2007 г. и 2008 г.).

Ръстът на реалния БВП за ЕС27 се очаква да падне от 2.9% през тази година до 2.4% за следващата. Същевременно се очаква леко покачване на инфлацията: от 2.1% за 2007 г. до 2.2% за 2008 г. За същите години безработицата е предвидено да спадне от 7% до 6.6%, а ръстът на заетостта от 1.6% до 1.2%.

За Еврозоната тенденциите са същите с минимални разлики в стойностите.

Икономическият преглед на BUSINESSEUROPE е базиран на изследване, проведено сред националните федерации, членове на BUSINESSEUROPE от 27-те страни-членки на ЕС. Фактически Българската стопанска камара отговаря за частта на България.

Изданието е озаглавено: "BUSINESSEUROPE Economic Outlook Autumn 2007 - Намаляване на нестабилността, засилване на реформите ". То може да бъде намерено на адрес:

[Turnovec]

Hmmm ... dear fatherland ...

news from yesterday :

Иска се увеличение на депутатските заплати с 44%. Имало и намерение за поне 20 нови коли, съобщи bTV. Парламентът иска близо 20 млн. лв. повече средства от държавния бюджет за работата си през 2008 година.

За учителите пари няма.

[zzibit]

what is not wrong with this country????????

[bgrs]

Labour Shortage Oppresses Bulgaria and Romania

With as many as 2m Romanians working abroad and fast economic growth, the country's labour market is growing increasingly tight.

Unemployment in the country fell from 7 per cent in 2003 to 5.2 per cent at the end of 2006 and is nearer 4 per cent today. At the same time, overall wages have grown consistently at or near 20 per cent a year since 2002, according to data from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

In these circumstances, it is little surprise that developers in Bucharest are complaining it is hard to find the labour for their building sites.

According to Clemens Grafe, Europe, Middle East and Africa economist at UBS, wage inflation is highest in low-skills sectors where working abroad is an easy option.

He said: "In Romania, you see much quicker wage growth in the non-skilled sectors like hotels, restaurants and construction."

Wage growth in the construction sector has outpaced overall wage inflation, with workers earning some 50 per cent more today than a year ago, according to Diwaker Singh, a Bucharest real estate developer.

But the EBRD's employment data shows the story has roots in a period before Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU at the beginning of this year. The single largest decline in the size of Romania's workforce occurred in 2002, when the country's citizens first gained visa-free access to the European Union.

In that year, the country recorded a year-on-year decline of 12 per cent in the size of its labour force, since when the numbers have been relatively stable.

The numbers for Bulgaria tell the same story, with unemployment declining continuously from 19.5 per cent in 2001 to 8.9 per cent at the end of last year.

In Mr Grafe's view, wage convergence may remove the economic pressure that is driving migration flows sooner than many expect. He said: "We believe that the speed with which labour costs change will change completely. Migration is driving wage movements.

In countries that have seen major migration, wage increases have speeded up dramatically."

Historically, eastern Europe's wage levels had grown relatively slowly. "In countries like Poland, we expect 12 or 13 per cent wage increases. It used to be 2 to 3 per cent [before large-scale migration]."

[new bulgaria]

Go, Bulgaria, gooooooooooooooo!

FINANCIAL TIMES: Bulgaria shrugs off the global credit crisis
By Kerin Hope and Theodor Troev

Published: November 10 2007 02:00 | Last updated: November 10 2007 02:00

Home owners in many parts of the world have reason to worry about the implications of the international credit crisis. In Bulgaria, they do not. Bulgaria's residential property market is showing unexpected resilience thanks to investment by east Europeans and increasing numbers of local buyers.

Interest from foreign investors remains high, as they are aware that Bulgaria still has the lowest property prices in the European Union, says Michail Chobanov, chief executive of Sofia-based Bulgarian Properties.

Investors from Russia and Romania have started to replace the British and Irish buyers who were the first to put the Black Sea coast and Bansko, a ski resort south of Sofia, on the international second-home map. "The credit squeeze has had an impact mainly in the US and the UK, while the market in the past six months has been driven predominantly by investors from Russia, Romania, Poland and Ukraine," says Rossen Dimov of Rockarch Estates, a London-based property consultancy.

Russians and other east Europeans, who filled Bulgaria's Black Sea resort hotels in the communist era, are returning as buyers of holiday homes. Estate agents say sales to east Europeans, whether of low-priced apartments or high-end villas in gated developments, have shown a significant increase this year.

"I chose Bulgaria because it's close enough to drive to if I want, and I feel at home - all the older people speak Russian. And it was afford-able, unlike the prices here," says Pavel Sinelnikov, a businessman in St Petersburg who bought a twobedroom apartment at Golden Sands, the second-largest Black Sea resort.

Georgi Kirov of Colliers Bulgaria, the property consultants, says prices at big resorts on the Black Sea coast had doubled within a few years before starting to decline even before the credit squeeze, because of an oversupply of apartments and the slow pace of infrastructure improvements.

Other market segments are unaffected, however.

"The credit squeeze accelerated this trend regarding seaside apartments, but high-end coastal developments and residential property in Sofia are doing well," he says.

Bulgaria's strong economic growth in the run-up to EU membership, averaging more than 5 per cent annually, has pushed up incomes for private-sector workers. Mortgages are widely available from the local subsidiaries of Italian, Greek and Austrian banks.

According to the Bulgarian central bank, property purchases in the first eight months amounted to €1.16bn ($1.7bn, £808m), equivalent to about 35 per cent of total foreign direct investment since Bulgaria joined the EU last January.

Bulgaria's property boom was initially driven by investors from the UK and Ireland, attracted by cheap prices for newly built second homes and one of the lowest costs of living in Europe. Three years ago, a 60 square metre holiday apartment on the coast sold for about €36,000, while a four-member family could holiday comfortably for a month on about €400.

Apartment prices on the coast doubled before starting to decline this year, with some estate agents offering discounts of 5-15 per cent on new developments to attract more buyers. But prices are still buoyant for developments around new golf courses or on unspoiled stretches of coastline, which are popular with wealthy east Europeans and Bulgaria's new rich.

The capital Sofia, along with the port of Varna on the Black Sea coast, is seeing steady population growth as skilled workers migrate from provincial Bulgarian cities.

The supply of residential properties is growing fast, but demand is stronger still. Prices have risen 13-18 per cent this year, according to Myles Summerfield, chief executive of LS Property, a Sofia-based company that focuses on retail and commercial developments in the Balkan region. "This market looks strong as prices are still 20-30 per cent less than other comparable east European cities, and there is a growing local market looking to buy in better areas, in developments with more facilities," he says.

[new bulgaria]

Iraq To Pay Bulgaria USD 360 M of Debt in Cash

Iraq will pay USD 360 M in cash to settle its debt to Bulgaria, finance minister Plamen Oresharski said on Sunday.

Bulgaria thus becomes the first country from the Paris club of creditor nations to reach a settlement with war-torn Iraq, he added.

The sum represents 30% of the total debt owed to Bulgaria by the Middle Eastern nation, which is USD 1,86 B. Bulgaria will write off the rest of the debt.

The other option was to write off 80% of the debt, with the rest of the money paid in 23-year bonds.

But Bulgaria refused to take the long-term bond option, choosing instead to receive the cash now, Oresharski told reporters. The funds are due to be transferred in the first half of 2008.

Iraq owed about USD 38,9 B in debt and interest repayments to the Paris club, which has 19 members, including the US, Russia, Japan and European nations, when Saddam Hussein's regime was toppled by the US-led coalition, of which Bulgaria is part.

The creditors agreed to write off most of the debt, reducing the amount owed to USD 7,8 B.

[nebunul]

http://www.jubileeiraq.org/cgi-bin/m...0OR%20romanian

[3tmk]

ooops, I didn't notice this one go so far


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