News archive of September 2020

The Governing Council of the Bulgarian National Bank decided to withdraw from circulation the banknotes with a face value of BGN 2, issues 1999 and 2005.

They shall cease to be legal tender on 1 January 2021.

Incumbent President Donald Trump, on behalf of the Republicans, and Democratic candidate Joe Biden, stood facing each other. The debate was held in Cleveland, and it is the first of several that will be held before the day when the citizens of America will choose who will lead them in the next four years.

Greece, a member of the EU, and Turkey, which is Greece's NATO partner, are currently in dispute over the delimitation of the gas exploitation zone in the eastern Mediterranean. The issue will be discussed at the EU summit on Thursday and Friday in Brussels.

Almost 71% of Romania's resident population was connected to the public water supply system, in 2019, on the increase compared to the previous year, according to data the National Institute of Statistics (INS) published on Wednesday.

Turkey has lowered the level of withholding tax on lira bank deposits of more than one year to zero from 10%, the Official Gazette said on Sept. 30. 

The move aims to protect the value of the Turkish lira, to ensure that savings are kept in deposit and participation accounts opened in Turkish lira and to encourage the use of under-pillow savings in these accounts.

Clashes in the region escalated on Sunday since dozens of people were killed and injured.
Armenia announced that one of its warplanes shot down a fighter plane of the Azerbaijani ally, Turkey, in the latest incident, when the pilot was killed. Both Turkey and Azerbaijan have denied this.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo once again hailed Greece's role as "a pillar of stability in the region," wrapping up a two-day visit ahead of his flight to Rome.

"Departing Greece today, gratified by the extraordinary progress we've made in US-Greece relations since my visit last year," Pompeo tweeted. "I welcome Greece's role as a pillar of stability in the region," he added.

The 83rd night of anti-government protests passed calmly and without escalating tensions.

This time, in addition to the resignation of the government and the chief prosecutor, the people in the square also demanded the resignation of Deputy Parliament Speaker Valeri Simeonov for speaking critically to state television over the protests.

During the last 24 hours, 276 new cases of coronavirus have been registered in Bulgaria, and 6 people have died, according to the data of the Unified Information Portal.

A total of 4736 PCR tests were performed. 814 people are treated in hospitals, of which 44 are in intensive care units.

The number of companies deregistered nationwide decreased by 59.03% in the first eight months of 2020 compared to the same period of last year, to 32,255 deregistrations, according to statistics from the National Trade Register Office (ONRC).