Reports and Analyses

Bulgaria will end the year with the best fiscal result in the European Union, Bulgaria’s Finance Minister, Simeon Djankov, said.

Djankov voiced his confidence in a Sunday interview for the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR), aiding that in 2010 Bulgaria would also be the only country to fulfill the Maastricht criteria.

The Minister pointed out that the country has reached the bottom of the crisis, but the anti-crisis measures of the new cabinet are yielding positive results such as the passing of the 2010 budget and the upgraded rating by Standard & Poors.

The consumer price index (CPI) in Bulgaria registered another month of deflation in November, falling 0.1% year-on-year after marking a 0.3% drop the previous month, statistics office data showed on Monday.

On a monthly basis, the CPI edged up by 0.1% due to an increase in food and soft drinks prices, transport, clothes and shoes, after marking the same rise in October, data showed.

Food prices in October slightly increased by 0.3% on a monthly basis, while non-food prices rose 0.2%. Prices of services dropped 0.3% in November from a month ago.

Jochen Richter is expected to lead the Cabinet of International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response Commissioner, Bulgarian Rumiana Jeleva, according to a survey by Hill & Knowlton International.

Richter was deputy head of Multilingualism Commissioner Leonard Orban's Cabinet.

A German national, he previously worked in the Conciliations and Co-decision Secretariat of the European Parliament.