What's happening in Black Sea - October, 2015

Bulgaria

• According to Bulgarian Finance Ministry, the country’s economy is expected to grow by 2.1%, 2.5% and 2.7 in 2016, 2017 and 2018, respectively.
• Kiril Domuschiev, President of the Confederation and Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria (KRIB), expressed that Bulgarian gray economy reached 30% of the country’s economy, which makes Bulgaria ranked first in the EU in terms of gray economy. Domuschiev believes that one of the most troubled sectors in the country is tourism.
• Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) reported that foreign direct investment (FDI) in Bulgaria for January-August period was € 944.3 million. 
• Bulgarian Employment Agency announced that the country’s unemployment rate dropped to 9.2% (302,775 people) in September, which is 1.3% lower than the same month in the previous year. 
• Vladislav Goranov, Bulgarian Finance Minister mentioned that education, defense and interior ministry will take more shares in the government budget for 2016.
• The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) announced that they are planning to offer a great deal amount of loan, € 650 million, to Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) in order to use for thermal power plants.
• International Monetary Fund (IMF) declared in its latest World Economic Outlook report that Bulgarian economy is expected to grow by 1.2%in 2015 and 1.9% in 2016. 
• Bulgarian Finance Ministry expressed that debt to GDP ratio for Bulgaria remained unchanged from July as 28.4%. 
• According to the data of the Electricity System Operator (ESO), exports of Bulgarian electricity producers increased to 8.42 million MWh by the end of September 2015, which is 31.7% more than the previous year. The main electricity importer is Greece.
• World Economic Forum (WEF) announced that Bulgaria retained the 54th position in WEF’s competitiveness ranking.

Georgia

• Dmitry Kumsishvili, Georgian Economy Minister, expects the country’s economy to grow by 3% in 2015 with the support of FDIs reaching at least $ 1.7 billion. 
• Georgia is planning to get its independence in terms of energy. According to Kakha Kaladze, Georgian Energy Minister, four new hydro power plants will be built in Georgia’s Racha-Lechkumi and Lower Svaneti regions in order to replace expensive thermal power and also export energy to its neighboring countries. The project covers four hydro power plants producing 1.7 billion kW per hour and is expected to start its phase of construction in 2017. 
• National Statistics in Georgia announced that Georgian economic growth slowed to 2.8% in the first eight months of 2015, which was 6.1% in the same period last year. 
• Asian Development Bank (ADB) expressed that the Bank has established strong relationship with Georgia, which became a member in 2007. Only in 2015, ADB approved $ 75 million to assist Georgian government’s reforms on resource utilization. 

Greece

• Greek government acts negative in terms of the country’s economy. Syriza officials mentioned that they expected the economy to shrink by 1.3% this year and a return to growth could happen later in 2016.
• Valdis Dombrovskis, European Commission Vice President, mentioned that they revised their forecast on Greek economy to 2.0% from 2.5% for 2015. Although there was a life-sign for the country’s economy last year with 0.8% growth since 2008, the country slid back into recession due to the rejection of agreed reforms by Syriza. 
• According to Greek government officials, the country’s unemployment rate decreased by 0.2% to 25% in July, compared to June 2015.
• Greece’s industry output has been functioning positive, according to Greek national statistics institution ELSTAT. Greek manufacturing production increased 4.2% and electricity production rose by 4.2% while mining output declined by 6.1% in August, all compared to same month in the previous year. 

Romania

• Romania seeks to work with Chinese state on Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant in order to develop units 3 and 4, according to Daniela Lulache, Nucleaelectrica CEO-81.3% owned by Romanian state. The project is estimated at € 6.45 billion and will be covered by the China Nuclear Power Corporation which will hold 51% of the project. 
• Portland Trust, Czech investment fund, recently borrowed € 77 million from Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR) in order to develop the Oregon Park project in Bucharest which amounts to € 102.2 million.
• According to Florin Danescu, Romanian Banking Association, Romania’s bank assets reach to 60% of the country’s GDP. 
• EKR Elektrokontakt Romania, manufacturer of cabling solutions for the automotive industry, plans to receive € 9 million state aid for an investment of € 18 million in Gorj county with creating more than 800 jobs in the country. EKR established in 1996 and has been a supplier to BMW Group, Daimler and General Motors.
• According to Romanian Ministry of Economy, the number of companies from the United States (the US) invested in Romania increased this year. The US investments in Romania reached to $ 1.3 billion and had 4.8% increase at the end of June this year, compared to previous year. The investments were mainly from wholesale and retail trade, real estate and mining with 27%, 16.8% and 12.7%, respectively. 
• Siniat Romania opened a new drywall factory in Turceni with a worth of € 50 million investment. Turceni plant, the first plant using the gypsum resulted from the gas desulphurization process from a heat plant, plans to supply ten markets in South-Eastern Europe by having 27 million m2 production capacity.
• According to the WEF Global Competitiveness Report, Romanian economy moved up to 53rd among 140 economies. 

Russia

• British-based AstraZeneca Group announced that they opened a new drug factory with a worth of $ 224 million in the Kaluga region southwest of Moscow. The company plans to reach full capacity in 2017.
• Fitch Ratings declared that it confirmed Russia’s long and short term foreign currency sovereign credit ratings as BB+ and BBB-, respectively. 
• Russian investment bank – The International Investment Bank expressed that they have managed to attract € 25 million on the Bucharest Stock Exchange to invest in Romanian companies with granting loans.
• Anton Siluanov, Russian Finance Minister, declared that the country’s GDP could decrease by 3.8% due to lower oil prices and international sanctions, but the growth will be expected for 2016 with 0.7%. 
• Russian Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev expressed that the Ministry expected ruble exchange rate against the dollar to be 63.5 in 2016 with 16% strengthening compared to earlier forecast.

Turkey

• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan mentioned that the opening of the third airport in Istanbul, which is expected to become one of the world’s busiest air hubs, has been delayed to the first quarter of 2018. The airport aims to handle 90 million passengers a year at first phase, 150 million when fully operational. The cost of Turkey’s biggest project estimated as € 32 billion, according to the President. 
• According to Turkey’s Central Bank, Turkey attracted $ 11.8 billion of foreign direct investment in January-August period of 2015, with 36% increase compared to the same period of 2014. 
• Hakan Cakil, Turkish Ambassador to Nigeria, expressed that Nigeria-Turkey trade volume reached to $ 2.5 billion as of December 2014. Nigeria, Turkey’s top trading partner in sub-Saharan Africa, mainly exports liquefied natural gas to the country. 
• Standard & Poor’s cut its growth forecast on Turkey to 2.8% from 3.2% for 2016. 
• Shahin Mustafayev, Azerbaijan’s Economy and Industry Minister, announced that Azerbaijan’s investments in Turkish economy will reach $ 17billion to $ 20 billion by 2020, which is just over $ 6 billion currently. Bilateral trade has been going just fine, more than 2,600 Turkish companies invested in Azerbaijan while 1,600 Azerbaijani companies are active in Turkey.
• As September 2015, the annual inflation in Turkey increased to 7.95%, which is above the government’s target of 5% for the end of year.
• Dydo Drinco, Japanese drinks firm, announced to acquire three Turkish beverage makers – including Cola Turka – with a total investment of $ 110 million.

Ukraine

• Standard & Poor’s declared that they increased Ukraine’s both foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings to B- from SD and B- from CCC+, respectively. 
• Due to politic conflicts’ heavy impacts on the country’s economy, the World Bank has revised its projections on Ukraine’s GDP as 12% decline for 2015, which was forecasted as 7.5% earlier. 
• According to Naftogaz, Ukrainian state energy firm, the company plans to buy 2.2 billion cubic meters of Russian gas for $ 500 million in 2016. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development also announced that they have already approved a proposal to Naftogaz to extend their loan up to$ 300 million in order to purchase the natural gas on the European market.