BGN

A nationwide campaign has raised over BGN 120 000 for the victims of the floods in northeastern Bulgaria within hours.

The heavy rain which hit the region on Thursday claimed 12 lives, including 10 in Varna and 2 in Dobrich, with three people still missing, according to Interior Minister Tsvetlin Yovchev.

For the time being we do not need to take another loan at the international markets, Bulgaria's Finance Minister Petar Chobanov told Darik national radio. 

According to him, the state debt strategy was implemented “calmly and smoothly”.

He said that in spite the “hysterical talking”, the budget was stable and the claims of a BGN 10 B deficit in the budget were untrue. 

Bulgaria's Finance Minister has said that the state budget can afford spending of BGN 25 M on potential snap elections by end-214.

The BGN 20 bill is the most frequently counterfeited in Bulgaria, followed by BGN 10 and BGN 50 banknotes.

More than 2,000 fake bills have been seized since the beginning of the year, an employee of Bulgaria's State Agency for National Security (DANS) told BTV.

Revenues arising from bank deposits have recorded the highest rates in 6 years, according to data by Bulgaria's National Bank and the National Statistical Institute.

For the last year, every BGN 100 on deposit has generated a revenue of BGN 5.50, nearly two-thirds of it coming from the interest and the rest is due to the negative inflation rates, Bulgarian 24 Chasa infroms.

The Bulgarian Parliament has approved the issuance of debt worth EUR 1 493 000.

This was made possible through the adoption of a contract between Bulgaria and Citigroup Global Markets Limited, HSBC Bank PLC and JP Morgan Securities PLC, according to reports of Sega daily.

The contract defines the relations between the state and the banks related to the issuance of bonds.

Bulgarians saved a total of BGN 456 M in April 2014, according to statistics of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB).

Deposits, including interests paid on them, reached a total of BGN 40.74 B.

Deposits of households exceeded BGN 40 B in end-March, when the total amount of money stored in accounts of natural persons stood at BGN 40.28 B.

Populist party "Bulgaria without Censorship" of former TV host Nikolay Barekov had the most expensive media campaign for the European Parliament elections.

According to a survey of the Institute for Public Environment Development, the "Bulgaria without Censorship" party spent around BGN 1 085 655 on media coverage.

The tourist trips of Bulgarians have risen by 24.4% in Q1 2014 year-on-year, shows data of the National Statistics Institute (NSI). 

In the first three months of this year a total of 684 700 Bulgarians over the age of 15 went on a tourist trip. 

The majority – 84% - travelled within Bulgaria, 12.8% went abroad and only 3.2% travelled both in and outside Bulgaria. 

Power distributors operating in Bulgaria committed 2690 infringements, as the national energy watchdog DKEVR's audit revealed Wednesday.

Czech-based CEZ and Energo-Pro and Austrian-based were also accused by DKEVR of having provided false accounts of their revenues, with the latter being "millions of BGN" more than reported, according to Dariknews.