ILLEGAL MIGRANTS
Duma reports that an investigative experiment is being carried out in Burgas to look into the trafficking channel in which 18 migrants died, suffocated in a truck and found near Lokorsko, according to Sofia Deputy City Prosecutor Hristo Krastev.
Some of the accused in the case have given detailed information about the scheme to the investigators. The case was part of cross-border criminal activity and the mastermind had connections in Turkiye and Serbia. The migrants were also questioned. They have identified some of the individuals. The hiding place could hold about 40 people, and on the day in question, 52 people were loaded. The remaining 34 migrants alive have been placed in 5 hospitals in the capital, with 19 people currently left for treatment, six of them in serious condition.
The search for one more person is ongoing and a European Arrest Warrant has been issued. Investigators believe he left the country as soon as he found out what had happened. Seven people have been arrested in the case and six have been charged.
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According to Standart News, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Taliban movement, which controls Afghanistan, called on Bulgarian authorities to punish those responsible for the deaths of the Afghan migrants.
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A total of 43 migrants, ten of them children, were crammed into a van detained by police on Sunday near Ihtiman. The driver was arrested. This is what Natalia Nikolova, the district prosecutor of Sofia, told BTV. 
At a gas station, the van was filled with fuel, but the driver did not pay. A patrol car caught up with him and the police found that there were migrants in the van. There were ten children in the van, two of them aged 8 and 12, travelling with their father. Seven other minors were travelling alone, prosecutor Nikolova said. All the migrants were in good health, although they were riding in a tight space.
POLITICS
A head-on clash between Kiril Petkov and Boyko Borissov is taking place Monday, Standart writes. The defamation case that co-chairman of Continue the Change Kiril Petkov filed against GERB leader Boyko Borissov continues. It was provoked by a statement by Borissov, according to which Petkov received a commission for buying natural gas. The first witnesses have been questioned. Although Borissov's defence asked for a court recall, this never happened.
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24 Chasa runs an interview with Assoc. Prof. Boris Popivanov of the Political Theory department of Sofia University. According to him, the big problem of the parties is that they are not trying to attract new voters, but to redistribute some 40% of the electorate, and that's why they are on the defensive, they blame, they dissociate. If a government is formed at all, it will be either around GERB or around CC and DB, Prof. Borisov says, adding that he expects the former development. Working abroad for a month, a year or five until people make money and come home has replaced the brain drain from Bulgaria. He doesn’t know if there will be another addition to the Magnitsky list before the elections, but as it stands now he thinks the effect will be rather small.
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Standart and Trud write that third countries are hindering relations between North Macedonia and Bulgaria. The revelation was made by North Macedonia’s Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski in a MIA interview during the Munich Security Conference. He stressed that relations between Bulgaria and the Republic of North Macedonia are threatened by people, groups and political parties in both countries that are funded by third countries who also do not want to see the region integrated into the EU.
"The Republic of North Macedonia and Bulgaria must rely on communication at the institutional level and preserving the dignity of institutions and citizens. If we work in this direction on issues and projects that unite citizens, I believe that bilateral relations will be at a level worthy of two neighbouring countries, NATO members and future EU partners," Kovacevski said.
In his words, it is no longer a question of if but when the Western Balkans will become part of the EU.
ECONOMY
Trud publishes an analysis by Petar Ganev of the Institute for Market Economics
The annual food inflation reached over 25% at the end of 2022, which predictably provoked politicians to show activity and fight profiteering.
However, the start of the campaign comes after the peak in annual inflation, i.e. at a time when inflation has gradually gone down and it is easier to report "success" from monitoring and control in a month or two.
The fight against growing prices also comes after the dissolution of parliament, which removes the possibility of legislative changes. This means that the responsible institutions have neither a new mandate nor new tools at their disposal, and it is even more unclear why they have not fought profiteering and unfair trade practices before now;
A review of the food price data leads to several observations: 1) inflation in the country and in the EU periphery in general has traditionally been higher than the average for Western Europe, 2) the anticipatory rise in food prices in Bulgaria is faster, i.e. the mechanism of transmission of higher production, logistics and trade costs along the supply chain to the final price is much faster here than in the developed Western economies; and 3) by the end of 2022, Bulgaria is already past the peak of annual food price growth - also visible in the data for January 2023, with the fall in annual food inflation following by around three months the overall fall in annual food inflation in the country.
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Trud publishes an analysis by financier Dimitar Chobanov of the University of National and World Economy. He says that compared to 2019, in 2022 there is an increase in wages in all economic activities, with an average rate of 37.9%. Private sector growth is slightly lower, while public sector growth is 40%. According to the NSI, the CPI inflation in 2022 was 13.7% on average.
Overall, real wages have fallen in the public sector (-5.4%), while private sector growth has matched the rate of inflation, i.e. purchasing power has not changed on average. However, these developments give public sector workers reason to demand wage indexation this year, according to Chobanov.
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In the provisional report on economic development within the EU in the post-pandemic period, Bulgaria is at the bottom of the table. The leading countries outperform Bulgaria by a 7-8 times growth rate. It is obvious that inflation will be a problem for the whole of Europe, but it is becoming a huge problem for Bulgaria, because I do not see any adequate management, said Branimir Botev, president of the European League for Economic Cooperation on the air of BNT in his comment on the news that the introduction of the euro in Bulgaria is being postponed.
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To check how much basic products cost in Bulgaria and in several other European countries, a team of Nova TV compared prices in Bulgaria, Spain, the UK, Romania and Greece. The list includes 10 of the main food items that consumers buy. The results show that the products on the list cost the most in Bulgaria and Spain - around BGN 60, against BGN 54 in Romania and BGN 50 in Greece. The cheapest market with the 10 goods from the small consumer basket is in Great Britain, BGN 47.
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24 Chasa writes that the mark-up of retailers in Bulgaria reaches a fantastic 79%, which means that from the warehouse to the store prices almost double. The average increase in the price of food on the way from wholesaler to consumer is 36%. The mark-up is very high for the most perishable products, as well as for those that are generally low-priced and therefore would not be felt as much.
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There are about 48,000 working pensioners in Bulgaria. Increasing employment is part of the idea of businesses to hire more people to grow. When they are missing on the market it is difficult. Unemployment at 3.9% is one of the lowest levels we have reached, Nadia Vassileva, chair of the Bulgarian Employment Confederation, told Nova TV. In her words, foreign policy factors determine employers' uncertainty. She believes that all sectors will be worried about the conditions created. Vassileva expressed hope that more economically inactive people will be attracted to jobs.
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The fifteenth edition of the largest forum for agriculture in Bulgaria BATA AGRO, which is organized by the Bulgarian Association of the Traders of Agricultural Machines, will be held May 15-19 at Stara Zagora Airport, Nova TV reports. Traditionally, the exhibition is attended by agricultural machinery and agro-technology companies representing the world's biggest brands in the sector, irrigation systems, seeds and chemicals, spare parts, automotive and construction companies, consulting and financial institutions and many others.