BUSINESS ONE
Bulgaria ranked 44th in Forbes’ third annual ranking of Best Countries for Business. The country had advanced 24 positions in this year’s ranking, published on June 27. Bulgaria performed worse than neighbouring Romania (40) and Turkey (41), but fared better than Greece (53). Denmark topped the chart, with last year’s winner, the US,  coming fourth.  The ranking gauges more that 121 countries against key macroeconomic parameters such as gross domestic product (GDP), GDP per capita, unemployment and inflation as well as degree of innovations.

BUSINESS TWO
The business climate indicator in Bulgaria lost 2.2 points in May compared to the previous month, Bulgarian-language Pari daily quoted National Statistical Institute (NSI) data. The negative change is due to the more moderate estimates and expectations of managers from all sectors monitored by the NSI: industry, construction, trade and services. The business climate indicator has remained firmly above its long-term average value. Bulgaria’s May producer prices rose by 0.7 per cent month-on-month after rising by a monthly 0.2 per cent in April. May producer prices were 13.6 per cent higher than a year earlier, following an annual rise of 13.3 per cent in April.

TURKISH DISCONTENT 
Turkish lorry drivers protested at Bulgarian border crossings on July 1 against rising Bulgarian transport fees, Bulgarian news agency BTA said. The Union of Turkish Lorry Drivers (UTLD) issued a statement saying that “Bulgaria’s decision to increase transportation taxes to $271 a lorry (equalling $81.5 million a year) at border crossings – which is unilateral and not in adherence to international law – was the last straw for Turkish lorry drivers, who are faced with difficulties in any case when passing through Bulgaria. As a sign of protest, the UTLD suspends transport at Bulgaria’s border crossings and at Ro-Ro ports.”

OPEN EU SKY
Bulgarian airlines would be allowed to conduct flights within the EU as of late July 2008, Zahari Alexiev, head of the Directorate-General for Civil Aviation Administration was quoted as saying by Bulgarian Focus news agency on July 1. By mid-July, the European Commission will have its say on the EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency) report, he said. The latest EASA inquiry concluded that Bulgarian authorities had fixed all problems that led to the imposition of a safeguard clause on Bulgarian aviation in 2006.