TOO MANY
Bulgaria reported the second-fastest growth rate in terms of new passenger car registrations in the first half of 2008, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association said, as quoted by dnevnik.bg. Bulgaria’s year-on-year growth rate of 20.5 per cent was beat only by Lithuania’s 36.2 per cent. In the same time, the number of cars sold was only 23 292 units. The volume of the Bulgarian market remains disappointing, though, compared to countries with comparable population like Hungary and the Czech Republic, where 82 943 and 73 455 new cars, respectively, were registered over the same period.

BUDGET SAVINGS
Some 120 million leva has been granted to speed up the construction of the Maritsa, Trakiya, and Hemus highways and the southern arc of Sofia’s ring road. The money comes from savings and surplus in the Bulgarian Government’s 2008 Budget, government.bg announced on July 17 2008. These roads are considered priorities in the country’s transport network. “A better infrastructure will reduce people’s transport costs and will increase traffic safety,” the website said.

INVESTIGATION
Bulgarian financial watchdog will investigate the technical aspects of the bourse transactions for the sale of state-owned equity in the Bulgartabac cigarette factories in Stara Zagora and Plovdiv, dnevnik.bg said. The probe was prompted by media reports and tip-offs. Regardless of the outcome of the investigation, existing regulations have no provisions that would allow to cancel the bourse transactions. Bulgartabac sold 78 per cent in the Stara Zagora factory for 18 million leva, while its stake in the Plovdiv factory fetched more than 30 million leva.

ENERGY CRISIS
There would be an energy crisis this coming winter, Sofia heating company Toplofikatsiya executive director Petko Milevski said, as quoted by Dnevnik daily. According to Milevski, “this winter won’t be great fun. ... No one can predict at what price natural gas will be by the end of the year”. Milevski also said that only 38.03 per cent of the customers of Toplofikatsiya had paid their debts to the company in the first five months of 2008. The debt collection rate in the same period in 2007 was 40.53 per cent, he said.

CONTROVERSY
The incumbent board of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange has been put down for a new five-year term in the commercial register of the Registry Agency, but it is based on incorrectly reported information, bourse shareholders said.