Pricing

State-owned Bulgargaz said on Monday it plans to cut natural gas price for consumers by 13.65% in the fourth quarter of the year due to an expected drop in the price of gas supplies.

Turkey's Aksa Enerji has signed a five-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Ghana to install a 370MW power plant, electricity generation and the guaranteed sale of the energy, it said Aug. 10. 

Vladimir Ivanov, Chair of the Commodity Exchanges and Wholesale Markets State Commission, has argued that the power price hike for industrial consumers as of August 1 will result in an increase of 1-1.5% in retail prices.

Ivan Ivanov, Chair of Bulgaria's Commission for Energy and Water Regulation (KEVR), has attributed calls for his resignation by employers' associations to attempts to protect corporate interests.

Employers' associations demanded the resignation of Ivanov after he announced KEVR's decision to introduce a significant power price hike for industrial consumers as of August 1.

Royal Dutch Shell on July 30 said it plans to reduce its headcount by 6,500 this year owing to sliding oil prices and as it looks to complete a mega takeover.

More than 1000 firms will participate in a protest against the planned hike of electricity prices for businesses, which will take place in 28 Bulgarian cities on Wednesday.

The largest protest will be held in the capital Sofia with 5000-6000 people expected to attend the demonstration in front of the building of the Council of Ministers.

Turkey has seen the steepest decrease in hotel occupancy rates in Europe, excluding Russia, according to STR Global's June figures. 

The hotel occupancy rates were announced as 68.6 percent in June, a 7.6 percent decrease from the same month of 2014.  

We Turks are a weird bunch. The awarding of the 2020 Olympics to Tokyo instead of Istanbul caused many Turks, including ?çapulcular? (marauders) like your friendly neighborhood economist, to rejoice more than the Japanese.

The price of natural gas drops by BGN 40, from BGN 524 to BGN 484 per 1000 cubic meters of gas, from July 1, according to a decision of Bulgaria's Commission for Energy and Water Regulation (KEVR).

Bulgaria's Commission for Energy and Water Regulation (KEVR) has postponed by Tuesday a decision on the postponement of the entry into force of new electricity tariffs by 1 month.