Unemployment
At 9.18 per cent, June unemployment was the lowest since 1990, Labour and Social Policy Minister Emilia Maslarova said in Varna on July 17. Maslarova said a downturn in unemployment to a level below 11 per cent had been observed since January and was likely to continue. The employment rate increased by 2.2 per cent in the first six months of the year. The new jobs guarantee long-term employment to 37 per cent of the employees. Training and retraining are one of the Government's priorities this year. In 2006, 42 000 people will take training and retraining courses. In addition, 18 000 people who have reached retirement age but fall short of the required length of service have paid up the required social insurance contributions.

Rating
Six small Bulgarian towns on July 17 received their first credit ratings from local credit rating agency Global Ratings as they prepare for the country's potential entry into the European Union in 2007. The agency issued credit ratings to the municipalities of Dobrich, Petrich, Assenovgrad, Strumyani, Banite and Rhodopi, Global Ratings managing director Vanya Vassileva told a news conference. Bulgaria will have to comply with the Basel II standards, which require that all loans in a bank's portfolio be risk-rated. The credit ratings will also allow the municipalities to ask for favourable conditions when negotiating with banks for loans to finance the reconstruction of their ageing infrastructure.

Shareholders
Bulgarian businessman and founder of the Onda coffee chain Yavor Todorov has sold most of his 30 per cent stake in the company to Belventures Capital Partners. Todorov, who confirmed the news, now owns less than 10 per cent of the coffee chain. Equity fund Global Finance has also increased its shareholding in Onda to around 50 per cent. The Global Finance stake was bulked up through a capital raise.  The equity reshuffle comes a year after Global Finance became a shareholder and made a two million leva investment in the coffee chain. Onda opened its first cafe in one of the Sofia outlets of German retailer Metro in 2003.
At the time when Global Finance became a shareholder, the chain had grown to four outlets. That number has doubled with the recent launch of a new Onda outlet in the Mall of Sofia.

Water
Sofia water utility Sofiyska Voda plans to invest 139 million leva (71 million euro) by 2008 to modernise the water and sewage infrastructure of the city. The company wants to raise the price of drinking water to 1.44 leva a cubic metre, VAT included, from 0.85 leva now to be able to finance its investment programme and use a further 58 million euro grant under the EU's pre-accession programme ISPA, Sofiyska Voda director of communications, Maria Doychinova, said.