November 6 (SeeNews) - Following are some of the main stories in Bulgarian newspapers on Friday morning. SeeNews has not verified these reports and cannot vouch for their accuracy.
KLASA
- Foreign investment in Bulgaria will reach 10% of GDP in 2010, central bank governor Ivan Iskrov said on Thursday. Bulgaria will be among the few countries in Europe with a balanced budget and a minimum deficit, Iskrov told a joint session of parliament's economy and budget commissions, which approved at first reading the cabinet's 2010 budget draft. The central bank has forecast zero economic growth, 9–10 percent unemployment rate and 2.2% inflation.
- The Bulgarian economy will suffer the loss of another 90,000 jobs by the end of 2009, acoording to a survey among local employers operating in the sectors worst hit by the crisis. A total of 40,000 jobs may be shed in the gambling industry, because of a planned rise in tax on gambling to 12% from 2010. Job cuts in the construction business may reach 35,000, and metallurgy and tourism will also be affected.
- The realistic price of residential property in Sofia varies between 530 and 600 euro per square metre, the city’s chief architect Peter Dikov told real estate conference BalRec.
MONITOR
- Bulgaria needs to spend nearly 200 million euro a year to keep the Belene nuclear power plant project in a viable state, the board chairman of state-owned Bulgarian Energy Holding group Boris Petkov said. Petkov believes the project should not be completely frozen after Germany's RWE withdrew from the project last month. No demand for compensation for the project delay has been sought yet by Russia's Atomstroyexport, which Bulgaria has chosen to build the power plant.
- Bulgarian Posts will set up five joint ventures with private investors as part of urgent measures for the stabilisation of the state-owned company, transport and telecommunications minister Alexander Tsvetkov said. The government hopes to attract up to 40 million levs in private investment under the plan. The state intends to keep 51% ownerwhip of the joint venture companies and retain 100% ownership over the existing assets of Bulgarian Posts.
DNEVNIK
- Lending rates in Bulgaria will gradually go down, bankers told real estate conference BalRec in Sofia on Thursday. Several banks will cut their loan rates by the end of the year and they will do so in several stages rather than slash rates by two or three percentage points in one go, Piraeus bank deputy CEO Emil Angelov said. He added that lending rates will not fall to the levels seen in early 2008 in the next year or two.
(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)