Yesterday, the WTO issued the final ruling on the export restrictions and duties imposed by China on various raw materials, including bauxite and magnesium. The report overall confirms the decision of the WTO Panel of 5 July 2011.

The WTO confirmed that export duties were incompatible because they exceeded commitments made in China's Accession Protocol. In addition, the report clearly states that the exceptions allowable under GATT to prevent critical shortages of products and protection of human, animal or plant life or health and to conserve exhaustible natural resources cannot be used as a pretext to shield domestic industry from competition or to undermine the rules of the multilateral trading system. The WTO found that the export restrictions imposed by China could not be justified under those exceptions because the measures clearly favoured Chinese industries.

For procedural reasons, the WTO was not able to rule on certain administrative aspects of export restraints imposed by China. However, this has little bearing on the case as Chinese restrictions have been found incompatible with WTO rules.

The WTO decision, which declares almost all Chinese export duties and restrictions incompatible with the multilateral trading system, paves the way for freer trade in raw materials globally.

BUSINESSEUROPE's Director General Philippe de Buck said: "At the eve of the EU-China Summit, the EU should call on China to immediately implement the WTO findings by removing export duties and restrictions on all raw materials."

H.E. Mr. George Mifsud, Ambassador of Malta to Bulgaria, visited BIA on 20.01.2012. He was met by Mr. Sasho Donchev, Chairman of the BIA Board, Mr. Georgi Shivarov, Vice Executive President, Mr. Veselin Iliev, Director General for International Economic Relations. After a short BIA presentation and exchange of opinions on the current bilateral economic relations, a discussion with practical aspect developed.

Malta privatized all industry and services and most of the public services are out-sourced. The business environment is very friendly and this makes Malta excellent location for business operations in Northern Africa. Malta is well situated in Libya, where Bulgarian companies from construction and other sectors had projects in the past. Bulgarian - Maltese cooperation may gain additional value in the process of reconstruction in Libya and some other Northern African countries.

Because of the small territory and market, a number of Maltese businessmen are looking for industrial locations in Europe. Bulgaria may become such option.

The both sides expressed specific interest to some European programs, namely Intelligent Energy Europe.
Mr. Donchev offered BIA full support to Maltese business circles interested in cooperation with Bulgaria.

Developing countries should prepare for further downside risks, as euro zone debt problems and weakening growth in several large emerging economies are dimming global growth prospects, the World Bank said in its newly-released Global Economic Prospects (GEP) 2012.
 
The Bank has lowered its growth forecast for 2012 to 5.4 per cent for developing countries and 1.4 per cent for high-income countries (-0.3 per cent for the euro zone), down from its June estimates of 6.2 and 2.7 per cent (1.8 per cent for the euro area), respectively.
 
Global growth is now projected at 2.5 and 3.1 per cent for 2012 and 2013, respectively.
 
Slower growth is already visible in weakening global trade and commodity prices, the World Bank said.
 
Global exports of goods and services expanded an estimated 6.6 per cent in 2011 (down from 12.4 per cent in 2010), and are projected to rise by only 4.7 per cent in 2012.
 
Meanwhile, global prices of energy, metals and minerals, and agricultural products are down 10, 25 and 19 per cent respectively since peaks in early 2011.
 
Declining commodity prices have contributed to an easing of headline inflation in most developing countries.
 
Although international food prices eased in recent months, down 14 per cent from their peak in February 2011, food security for the poorest, including in the Horn of Africa, remains a central concern, the World Bank said.
 
"Developing countries need to evaluate their vulnerabilities and prepare for further shocks, while there is still time," said Justin Yifu Lin, the World Bank's Chief Economist and Senior Vice President for Development Economics.
 
Developing countries have less fiscal and monetary space for remedial measures than they did in 2008/09.
 
As a result, their ability to respond may be constrained if international finance dries up and global conditions deteriorate sharply, the World Bank said.
 
To prepare for that possibility, Hans Timmer, Director of Development Prospects at the World Bank, said: "Developing countries should pre-finance budget deficits, prioritise spending on social safety nets and infrastructure, and stress-test domestic banks."
 
While prospects in most low-and middle-income countries remain favorable, the ripple effects of the crisis in high-income countries are being felt worldwide.
 
Already, developing country sovereign spreads have increased 45 basis points on average and gross capital flows to developing countries plunged to $170 billion in the second half of 2011, compared with $309 billion received during the same period in 2010.
 
"An escalation of the crisis would spare no-one. Developed- and developing-country growth rates could fall by as much or more than in 2008/09" said Andrew Burns, Manager of Global Macroeconomics and lead author of the report. "The importance of contingency planning cannot be stressed enough."

In 2011, the National Revenue Agency (NRA) received a total of BGN 5.3 bn from social security contributions improving by BGN 452 mln the collectibility, compared to 2010. However, NRA's proceeds were BGN 196 mln less than planned. This is due to the inaccurately estimated revenues for the year, showed the agency's report. At the end of 2011, the Treasury extended BGN 280 mln in order to cover the deficit in the National Social Security Institute (NSSI). The transfer was higher due to the additional costs after the minimum monthly wage was raised from BGN 240 to BGN 270 and the widows' pensions were increased in September 2011.

According to the forecasts, the deficit of NSSI had to be around BGN 300 mln. The proceeds from social security contributions were BGN 100 mln more than expected and this was due to NRA's efforts to offset the incorrectly planned deficit of the NSSI, representatives of NRA commented forKlassa. "Since June, we had been working to decrease NSSI's deficit and we managed to reduce it from BGN 300 mln to BGN 196 mln," NRA sources specified. 

As of the middle of 2011, tax authorities and the Labour Inspectorate embarked on a more aggressive control policy. During their joint inspections, exceeding 10,000 in number, they established irregularities in the reporting of insurable incomes. As a result, the employers who had committed offences signed legal contracts with the employees hired without a contract or were forced to re-register the half-time labour agreements into full-time contracts. The problem with social security contributions became evident last spring and NSSI's former head Hristina Mitreva was dismissed because of it. 

According to the report, the collectibility of health insurance instalments was relatively high in 2011. The National Healthcare Insurance Fund (NHIF) collected BGN 1.450 bn or BGN 5 mln more than planned. Tax authorities collected a total of BGN 12.7 bn from taxes and insurance instalments or almost 98% of the projected revenues of the NRA for 2011. Proceeds from taxes stood at BGN 7.4 bn and these from insurance contributions - at BGN 5.3 bn. 

The net effect of Bulgaria's membership in the EU recorded an annual growth of 24% and amounted to € 1.22 bn, according to data of the Bulgarian National Bank for November 2011. 

The net effect is calculated as a difference between the amounts received from the EU funds and the payments due from our membership together with the contributions to various funds and programs, including the current capital transfers of the State.

In the period December 2010 - November 2011, the country received a total of €743.6 mln from Bulgarians permanently living and working abroad, which means an increase of 8.4% on an annual base, showed the BNB data. These transfers account for about 5% of the country's GDP. As a result, the net effect of our EU membership, together with the transfers from Bulgarians working abroad was €1.99 bn for a year. As noted in the report of Eurostat on emigrants' cash flows in the EU, the deficit in the country's current account in 2010 would have been nearly 160% higher without the remittances of the Bulgarians working abroad. 

Tomislav Donchev, Minister for EU Funds Management, said recently that in 2012 Bulgaria expected to receive from the Cohesion and Structural Funds a total of €4.5 bn, which was 5.6% of the expected GDP of the country.