The Austrian steel producer Voest Alpine have been signing preliminary contracts with land owners in the area of Konstaza in Romania, according to the local press. For some time the company have been looking for a location for their new plant in Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine. In June, due to the new restrictions on pollution enforced by the Bulgarian government, Bulgaria was excluded from this project which is expected to amount to 7 billion Euros.

The index of the producer prices for May 2008 showed an increase by 12.9% since May 2007, according to the National Statistics Institute.  For the same period the increase of the prices of consumer goods is 9.4% and of the investment products is 5.4%, while the highest increase is the one of energy – 24.8%. The inflation of the production on the domestic market is 13.6%, while on the international market it is 11.6%. According to the analysts, this comes to show that the market in Bulgaria is still not completely free, as local producers offer their production at competitive low prices abroad, while at the same they can compensate this by increasing their profit in Bulgaria.