As the November shopping bonanza Black Friday looms, consumers have been warned that some of the deals on offer may not be as robust as they appear.
UK consumer group Which? issued a report this week of its investigations into “on sale” items offered last year. The report says that many of them had been less expensive before or after Black Friday.
Portimão council has approved a proposal by Mayor Isilda Gomes to reduce the local Municipal Property Tax (IMI) from 0.50% to 0.45% for urban buildings in 2017.
As the municipality is in the government lending scheme to switch short-term debt to long-term, successfully having borrowed €130 million to ease the pain, it should be charging an obligatory 0.5% but as the council has demonstrated that it is able to repay the long-term debt interest, there now is some flexibility in IMI rates.
Faro’s mayor, Rogério Bacalhau, has authorised the removal of one of the city’s most famous roundabouts - the ‘Euro Vagina’ - at the western entrance to the city.
The gently mounded roundabout, between Faro prison and the Teatro das Figuras, earned the moniker as soon as it was unveiled in the UEFA Euro 2004 football competition year.
Faria de Oliveira, president of the Portuguese Association of Banks, says the continuing impasse with Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD) directors refusing to hand in their income and asset statements to the Constitutional Court, “is very negative for Caixa and for the sector."
The APB president added that it is urgent to end this situation at Caixa and also expressed confidence that a solution for Novo Banco will be found by the end of the year.
Portugal’s Hotel Association (AHP) is to launch an online booking platform for the country's hotels as this has been identified as the way people like to make reservations.
This international trend has been spotted, albeit rather late, by the hoteliers association which now has applied for community funds to develop and launch the new site which aims to aggregate all Portugal’s hotels into one new super website.
Prime Minister Theresa May welcomed the Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa to 10 Downing Street on Wednesday, November 16th.
A Number 10 spokesperson commented, "...the Prime Minister welcomed President of Portugal Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa for a bilateral meeting at Downing Street.
A juvenile Iberian Imperial Eagle has been released after a period of intensive treatment for baldness.
The young bird, the progeny of one of only 15 breeding pairs in Portugal, was under a surveillance regime and was observed to lack the necessary feathers to fly, a distinct disadvantage as a two-month-old keen to leave the nest and strike out for independence.
One of Portugal’s top Constitutional Court judges has failed to submit income and asset details and another omitted to submit details of a bank account.
Both therefore have failed to fulfill their obligations as judges in the State’s employ yet currently are deciding whether the Board of Directors of Caixa Geral de Depósitos should or should not have to submit income and asset statements.
