United States ambassador in Sofia Nancy McEldowney has spelt out a scenario for Bulgaria's future economic development in the context of the global economic crisis. She said that with a very few exceptions, analysts in Bulgaria and the US had come largely to the same conclusion, that Bulgaria would not be as heavily impacted as some and perhaps many other countries.  "This is partly due to the size and the level of development of the economy here, but it is also due, and I think we need to give credit here, it is also due to sound policies, including heavy capitalisation of the national bank, strict adherence to the currency board, and maintenance of fiscal surpluses. She said that her assessment, on shared by the US treasury and many other, was that the Bulgarian economy had shown a "very, very impressive performance in recent years", and that this country has reaped some very important benefits.  "Bulgaria is a commercial success story and the American companies who are represented here today, who have had excellent experience in this country are great evidence of that success story," McEldowney said. "This is an attractive market with a skilled workforce, a strategic location, and an extremely favourable tax structure.  These are very important assets and they are assets that have been used to the advantage of Bulgaria in very wise ways."  17 November 2008

Bulgarian banks have no direct exposure to low-rated mortgage-backed securities, Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) governor Ivan Iskrov told a forum organised by Hungarian OTP Bank in Sofia. Bulgarian lenders apply totally different practices than their US peers keeping to the classical model, he said. The large European banks, which hold 81 pct of the assets of the Bulgarian banking sector, also have no direct exposure and have incurred no losses from the US mortgage market meltdown. Therefore they continue to inject liquidity into their Bulgarian divisions. The share of loans that are being repaid on time has remained unchanged from last year’s level of 95.5 per cent.“It is essentially important that the investors in the Bulgarian economy should know that whatever changes and concussions occur in the global environment, the Bulgarian economy will be adjusted within the framework of the existing currency board,” Iskrov said.  September 2008.

“The Raiffeisenbank Bulgaria bank registers stable demand for loans for home construction, purchase and repairs. Loan volumes are twice as bigger in 2008 compared with 2007”, “There are no surprises on the Bulgaria Property Market for the first half of 2008. Bulgaria Property prices increased on average with 12 pct”

Despite the ongoing financial and economic crisis, Ericsson announced the opening of its new logistics centre in Bulgaria on December 3 2008, a company statement said on December 4 2008. Ericsson's Central Order Desk will cover 11 countries from South-Eastern Europe by processing 65 per cent of all orders to the company and coordinating 100 per cent of all complaints. We are convinced that the telecommunication sector in Bulgaria will develop with high speed and with the new centre we want to reaffirm Ericsson's position as a sector leader, Aurelio Calicchia, managing director of Ericsson Telecommunications Bulgaria said in the statement.