People in the UK have been flashing the plastic in a show of consumer confidence which has brought the cumulative household outstanding debt to £66.2 billion on credit cards.
Unsecured credit boomed in October this year to create a record high, according to data from the Bank of England. Debt rose by £571 million that month, a leap of 10.5%.
Portugal’s favourite ratings agency, DBRS, has put the Caixa Geral de Depósitos rating "under surveillance with negative implications," signalling the likelihood of dropping the State-owned bank’s rating to 'junk' status.
The problems is one of corporate governance following the resignation of most of the Caixa Geral's directors alongside the bank’s president which has put at risk the bank's recapitalisation timetable. Without a ‘recapitalisation’- a polite word for ‘bailout,’ the bank inevitably will remain unprofitable.
Portugal’s Judicial Police have arrested 17 people on suspicion of blowing up cash machines.
The police launched an operation on Tuesday morning to arrest the gang members, "In the course of the operation, seventeen suspects of various nationalities, aged between 22 and 61, were arrested, some with a background of violent crime, relevant evidence was seized as well including several vehicles, motorcycles and numerous items of evidence."
There are now 34,000 local accommodation properties registered in Portugal, according to the Secretary of State for Tourism, Ana Mendes Godinho who claims the effort to supervise unregistered properties is "under way."
The complex and highly disliked Alojamento Local scheme has been in operation since 2008 with amendments in 2014, but over 70% of properties rented out to tourists remain unregistered, despite successive governments claiming the ‘big purge’ on illegal lettings is starting.
Portugal ever-smiley Prime Minister, António Costa, said today that 2017 may be viewed with "enhanced confidence."
The PM says that the country "is nearing the end of a fiscal year of excellence, where it was possible to fulfill the commitments made with the Portuguese to return families' incomes and create conditions for investment."
Madrid’s regional government is to double the compensation money it gives to farmers whose animals have been killed by wolves.
The area surrounding the Spanish capital is characterised by mountains, valleys, forests, pastures and farmlands.
The deadline for consumers to move their electricity supply account from EDP to one of the free market service providers had until Friday 25th November 2016 to make the change.
There’s good news for those who failed to choose a new supplier since the market was deregulated in 2006, as a Communist Party proposals was accepted by parliament on 25th November 2016, giving households until the end of 2020 before they have to make a choice.
Portugal’s child porn pedophiles, online scammers and internet fraudsters are advised that a new police unit to combat all forms of cybercrime is now operational.
The Judicial Police now runs a National Unit to Combat Cybercrime and Technological Crime, replacing the National Unit for Investigation of Computer Crime which never functioned after its high-profile launch by the Passos Coelho government in 2015.
