According to the latest report of Eurostat Bulgaria is among the countries with the highest growth on a quarterly basis in the EU

In the first quarter of 2015 Bulgaria is among the countries with the highest economic growth in the EU on a quarterly basis - 0.9 percent against 0.4 percent in the previous three months, according to Eurostat.

Among the members of EU for which there is available data for the first quarter of 2015, the fastest growing economy on a quarterly basis is Czech Republic (3.1%), followed by Cyprus and Romania (both 1.6%) . Reductions in GDP were recorded in Lithuania (-0.6%), Estonia (-0.3%), Greece (-0.2%) and Finland (-0.1%).

The latest report from Eurostat confirmed that the eurozone economy has accelerated its recovery in the first three months of the year. The data reported 5-year high of rising of the gross domestic product (GDP) amid occurring at the same time contraction in the US and a recession in Japan.

The aggregate GDP of the 19 members rose by 0.4% on a quarterly basis in January-March after a 0.3% rise seen in the last three months of last year. Final data coincided with both the interim evaluation, and with analysts' forecasts.

This is the best result since the first quarter of 2011 onwards when he had a growth of 0.8%.

On an annual basis the economy of EU expanded by 1% in the reporting period compared with growth of 0.9% observed in the fourth quarter of 2014. And here the final data coincided with both the interim evaluation, and with forecasts of experts.

For the first time since the first quarter of 2010 the four largest economies in the euro area reported growth. In addition, for the first time since the first quarter of 2011 the economy of EU rose more quickly than USA and UK .

The news came at a particularly favourable time as European economies continue to benefit from the many supporting factors at once. Oil prices remain relatively low, global growth is stable and the euro continues to depreciate.

A look towards the monetary policy is showing now that quantitative easing from the European Central Bank (ECB) now have a significant impact on financial markets, which contribute to lower interest rates and expectations for improving credit conditions.

In the latest economic forecast European Commission revised up its forecast for growth of EU and explained that predicts the economy will grow by 1.5% in 2015, 0.2 percentage points above the previous estimate. For Bulgaria the Commission expects economic growth of 1%. In the fall of 2014, Brussels predicted that the Bulgarian economy will expand by 0.6 percent this year.

In April the Ministry of Finance (MoF) has revised upwards its forecast for economic growth in 2015 and now expects growth of 1.4% in the initial 0.8%. Last year, gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by 1.7% - the fastest growth in two years.

Sharp drop in Chinese imports

China's exports  has moderately decreased in May,the imports collapsed sharply and that led to an increase in the trade surplus to 59.49 billion USD compared to 34.1 billion in April.

For the first five months of the year  the surplus reached 217.26 billion, but the continuing weakness in imports gives a reason to analysts to predict that the surplus for 2015 could approach $ 600 billion compared to $ 383 billion for the previous 12 months.

In May  exports fell by 2.5% yoy, recovering from a sharp fall from 6.4 percent in April. But the trend remains negative for the third consecutive month.

At the same time  imports accelerated decline of 16.2% to 17.6% yoy, reflecting the anemic domestic consumption.

For the period January-May  export has grown with 0.7% compared to the same period in 2014, while  the import has decreased 17.3%.

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South Korea indicate boost in economy growth

The growth of the fourth largest economy in Asia - South Korea, reached 2.5% in the first quarter of 2015 compared to the same period last year, reports the BBC.

The pace of increase exceeded the forecasts of South Korean Central bank. The bankers had expected growth of 2.4%. The government report also showed that the rise in gross domestic product (GDP) reached 0.8% in January-March compared to the last quarter of 2014.

The growth has been supported by the construction and investments as well as the consumption and production sector. Analysts predicted a slight growth in the first quarter. South Korea's economy is expected to gain momentum later in the year. In the last quarter of 2014 the economy of South Korea marked the lowest growth rate in the last six years, expanding by only 0.4%.To promote economic growth, South Korean Central bank reduced the interest rate to 1.75% in March. This move surprised the markets, but analysts expressed the opinion that it is possible prolapse of the new rate to the historic low of 1.5% in the coming months.

Russia's oil output at record high in May

Russia's oil output reached a record in May according to the preliminary data reported by the Energy’s Ministry CDU-TEK unit.The oil production has reached 10.708 million barrels per day, following by the competitor  Saudi Arabia with  10.25 million barrels. The third place is for USA.

According to James Henderson, analyst of oil markets from Oxford University, Russian oil output has proved to be too resistant to the fall in prices and for Russia it will not be difficult to maintain production at a high level in the next year or two.

The fact is that after the implementation of the international sanctions against the Kremlin for Russian participation in crisis in Ukraine and the annexation of the Crimea Peninsula, oil production in Russia is growing. In 2014 the country was third in oil production in the world.

Intel will acquire Altera for $16.7 Billion

Intel is closer to concluding a deal to acquire the competitive processors developer Altera, reported Financial times. According to sources of the newspaper the suggested price is $ 54 per share, that valuated the company at over 16.7 billion Dollars. This represents a 15% premium to the share price of Altera, before the media announce information about the deal.

The deal, which could be announced officially this week, will be the biggest in the history of Intel and will be the next consolidation in the series of mergers and acquisitions in the sector of computer chips.

The previous biggest deal was the acquisition of Intel developer of antivirus software McAfee for 7.7 billion Dollars in 2011.

The consolidation between producers of semiconductors is happening against the background of downward pressure on prices coming from the major producers of smartphones such as Apple and Samsung. The merger should give them more confidence in negotiations with bigger customers and allow them expansion amid slowing growth in demand for processors.

Altera has over 3000 employees in 19 countries and this could help Intel to diversify production and become less dependent on the sector of personal computers. Merging can also lead to filling of excess production capacity in the plants of Intel.

Altera's chips are used mainly in equipment for telecom, wireless and network devices, but also for military hardware, automotive and other industries. Altera programmable processors are increasingly used in processing centers and data can be customized for features such as faster execution of specific functions such as Internet search. Huawei and Ericsson are among the biggest customers of Altera.

Money flowing out of Greek banks

Deposits in Greek banks fell by 4.9 billion Euros only in April, reaching its lowest level in more than 10 years, according to the Bank of Greece.

The total volume of savings has shrunk to 133.7 billion Euro, which is a record low since September 2004. Deposits in Greek banks decreased for the seventh consecutive month.

Since the end of November last year to April this year Greeks withdrew 30.6 billion Euros from their accounts. According to the Central Bank the daily outflow from the banksis  between 100 and 500 million Euros.

This reduction in liquidity in the banking sector makes it entirely dependent on funds from the European Central Bank via the mechanism of emergency liquidity assistance / ELA /. 

Last week, the ECB raised the margin of money in ELA to 80.2 bln Euros.