🏳 BG — Investment Hypothesis

Bulgaria wants to respect its commitment to NATO and increase its defense spending to 5% of gross domestic product, Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev said on Thursday, according to Reuters. A former president of Bulgaria, Radev resigned from that position before the parliamentary elections in April, which he won with an overwhelming majority. Despite some pro-Russian remarks during the campaign, since winning the elections he has stated that he is willing to follow a European path.

Bulgaria has been placed under the EU's excessive deficit procedure just months after joining the euro area, indicating that the country's budget deficit exceeds permitted thresholds and triggering formal enforcement measures.

Romania’s benchmark BET index, which tracks the major stocks traded on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB), has risen roughly 74% over the past year. Its success is partly explained by its composition, as nearly two-thirds of the index is represented by companies in the energy and utility sectors, according to an analysis by Romanian stock brokerage firm Investimental. Traditionally considered defensive holdings, highlighting their ability to weather geopolitical crises and other events, listed energy and utilities companies benefited from overlapping geopolitical crises, the prospect of rising global electricity consumption driven by the growth of AI, and Romania’s status as an emerging market.