This report covers the key macroeconomic, financial and political releases for Bulgaria for the period since June 16, 2016.

Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov said that he does not expect Brexit to have serious direct impact on Bulgaria.

Bulgaria's business confidence improved m/m for a second consecutive month in June. The industrial production fell 3.3% y/y in May, reversing a 2.6% y/y increase in April. Bulgaria's construction output fell 8.1% y/y in May, after decreasing by 10.5% y/y the month before. Retail sales (at constant prices) climbed 3.9% y/y in May, slowing down from a 5.4% y/y increase in April.

An arbitration court in Geneva has ruled that Bulgaria’s state-owned National Electricity Company (NEK) has to pay €550mn to Russia’s Atomstroyexport, a unit of Rosatom, for equipment already produced for the cancelled Belene nuclear power plant project.

The Bulgarian parliament has adopted a new draft anti-corruption law in its first reading.


Key points:
• The CPI decreased by 1.3% y/y in June, after dropping by 2% y/y in May
• Bulgaria reported a consolidated budget surplus of BGN3.09bn (€1.58bn) in the first half of 2016, equal to some 3.5% of projected GDP, preliminary data from the finance ministry showed
• The country reported a current account surplus of €274.8mn in the first five months of 2016, reversing a deficit of €192.1mn in January-May 2015