October 13 (SeeNews) - Following are some of the main stories in Bulgarian newspapers on Tuesday morning. SeeNews has not verified these reports and cannot vouch for their accuracy.
MONITOR
- Bad loans in Bulgaria are expected to reach 16.5% at the end of the year, according to the central bank. The bank also expects the country's economy to contract by 7.0% this year and by 2.5% in 2010.
DNEVNIK
- Bulgaria's Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, currently on a two-day official trip to France, has invited French companies to take part in the Balkan country's Belene nuclear power plant project. Borisov also said underfunding has forced the government in Sofia to abandon a 750 million euro project to buy French-made corvettes for the country's navy.
- Bulgarian public companies will be able to start parallel trading on the bourse in Warsaw as of early November as all technical difficulties related to the double listing are expected to be resolved by then, Ralitsa Again, head of investment supervision at Bulgaria's financial regulator, said.
- The market for mining and construction equipment in Bulgaria shrank 85% on the year in the first half of 2009, Todor Zhelyazkov, manager of Caterpillar's Bulgarian dealer, Eltrak Bulgaria, said.
KLASA
- The profits of commercial banks in Bulgaria posted a twofold drop in the past 12 months as the spread between deposit and loan interest rates has narrowed to 1.93% from 3.62%, Levon Hampartzoumian, CEO of the country's largest lender by assets, UniCredit Bulbank, said.
SEGA
- The government in Sofia plans to rein in spending at the ministries by a further 10% after their outlays were cut by 15% in August and by 10% in January this year, Regional Development Minister Rosen Plevneliev said.