TRADE DEFICIT UP
Bulgaria’s trade deficit rose 27 per cent year-on-year to 6.6 billion leva in the first five months of 2008, National Statistics Institute data showed. Mineral fuel imports were up 49.2 per cent year-on-year to account for 4.4 billion leva. Bulgarian exports to other European Union countries added 20.2 per cent to 7.5 billion leva, with EU imports at 11.3 billion leva, up 18.1 per cent year-on-year, resulting in a trade deficit of 3.2 billion leva, dnevnik.bg said.

SURPLUS
Since 2007, the Bulgarian Government has spent just more than 6.5 billion leva in budget surplus money, a study by the local research outfit Institute for Market Economics showed. The Government, upon proposal of the Finance Ministry, approved the spending of some 4.6 billion leva in budget surplus cash. Concrete information on how this was spent and on what is very limited and it is almost impossible to cite any specific results achieved with the said financing.

FOODSTUFFS
The Bulgarian processing industry has renewed efforts to halve VAT on foodstuffs to 10 per cent. The industry was told a couple of days ago by Deputy Prime Minister for EU Funds Meglena Plougchieva that a working group will be set up to discuss the necessary changes to the VAT legislation. According to Bulgarian Association of the Food and Beverage Industry chair Dimitar Zorov, the promise indicated a softening of the Finance Ministry’s previously unflinching opposition to differentiated VAT rates.
 
NEW COMPANY
Bulgarian farmers planned to set up a company to export grain, in an attempt to eliminate go-betweens blamed for the low domestic prices, Dnevnik.bg reported. The idea for the new company was prompted by the prices offered by the middlemen, which were much lower than prices in the neighbouring countries, Radoslav Hristov, executive director of the national association of grain producers, said.

SLIGHT INCREASE
The influx of foreign tourists coming to Bulgaria this summer compared with last year has seen an increase between four and six per cent, Tsvetan Tonchev of the Bulgarian Tourist Chamber said, as quoted by investor.bg. After chartered flights were cancelled in May because of the ongoing construction on the Black Sea coast, only now have more foreign tourists started to increase. Hotel bookings for August are even higher than initially expected.