Economy Minister Bozhidar Lukarski has argued that companies based in China, Sweden, and Germany plan to move their production units to Bulgaria.

Lukarski announced in an interview for Nova TV that the companies seeking to develop their businesses in Bulgaria functioned in the car part manufacturing segment.

He explained the increased interest of Chinese companies in moving manufacturing abroad with the growing competitiveness in the country and the rising salaries of local workers.

Lukarski informed that foreign direct investment in H1, 2015 stood at EUR 799 M, a two-fold increase from H1, 2014, while the GDP growth in the fist six months of the year amounted to 2.2%, against an EU average of 1.6%.

Bulgaria’s Economy Minister, as cited by Sega daily, said that the recent inspections at filling stations had detected irregularities in only 87 out of a total of 22 000 flow-meters.

He admitted that there were other ways to implement fraud schemes in the fuel retail sector, adding that fuel quality checks were underway.

Lukarski underscored that the Economy Ministry was not authorized to conduct cartel probes into the fuel retail market, adding that the entity which was supposed to do this was the Commission for Protection of Competition.

He informed that the anti-trust watchdog had been approached over the matter and that it was checking prices.

Bulgaria’s Economy Minister pointed out that the mass inspections at filling stations had brought about a slight price decrease of BGN 0.03-0.07 per liter.