International economics

Turkish companies made foreign direct investments (FDI) worth a total of $6.8 billion in 2014, an increase of 89 percent from the previous year, according to a report released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on May 18.

In the first quarter of 2015 Bulgaria registered a 3.5-fold increase in foreign direct investment, according to Stamen Yanev, Executive Director of the InvestBulgaria Agency (IBA).

In a Tuesday interview for the Bulgarian National Television, Yanev said that in Q1, 2015 FDI stood at EUR 317.3 M, or 0.7% of the GDP, compared to a rate of EUR 89 M in the period January-March 2014.

The terms of investments pledged to Greece by the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development will depend on the outcome of Athens? talks with its creditors, the bank said on Friday.

There were many things to emphasize about Turkey?s March Balance of Payments (BoP) statistics, which were released by the Central Bank and the Turkish Statistical Institute on May 12.

 Bank will likely open its first office in the country this year

After surveying Bosnia's fiscal, economic and social situation over the last two weeks, an IMF mission has expressed mild optimism about signs of recovery - while underlining the need for urgent reforms if Bosnia wants further financial support.

"First reforms, then the next tranche," the Banja Luka daily Nezavisne Novine reported on Wednesday.

Even as the ECB’s governing council continued its “drip-feed” method of incrementally raising a ceiling for Emergency Liquidity Assistance towards Greece – by 1.1 billion euros on Tuesday for a total of 80 billion euros – media assessments remained negative in the absence of a bailout deal extension.

Indian private banker K.V Kamath was named May 11 as the first head of a new development bank being set up by the so-called emerging BRICS nations, officials said.

Turkey has faced problem taxing social media companies, said Finance Minister Mehmet ?im?ek. "We believe that social media companies must pay the taxes if they earn money here," he said at a G20 tax event in Istanbul on May 7. 

Sources from the Finance Ministry stated that Greece has made a 200-million-euro interest payment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday. Earlier, Alternate Finance Minister Dimitris Mardas had told private TV MEGA that the installment would be paid.

The next 750-million-euro payment that needs to be made to the IMF is due on May 12.