Ratings agency Moody's said today that the recapitalisation plan for Caixa Geral de Depósitos was "positive" and says the financial rescue of the State owned bank is in line with European rules.

The €4.6 billion refinancing agreement reached between Lisbon and Brussels was approved by the European Commission last Wednesday (August 24) and the inbuilt safeguards for institutional creditors has enabled Moody’s to give the thumbs up.

The loss-making State owned bank Caixa Geral de Depósitos has set aside €700 million to spend on staff payoffs including severance pay and early retirement packages.

The money is ‘part of the bank recapitalisation process’ say the bankers whose new board has agreed to shed up to 3,000 jobs in an effort to turn the bank around.

The eurozone unemployment rate remained at 10.1% in July where it has been since at least April this year, according to EU agency Eurostat.

But it has reduced steadily from 10.8% in July last year and is at its lowest since July 2011.

British holidaymakers flocked to Spain in record numbers during July this year.

Official statistics show that 9.6 million tourists went to Spain during July and of these Brits accounted for about 25%.

The famous Portuguese welcome now has a ranking with the country coming in at number ten worldwide of the friendliest places for foreigners to move to - and number one within Europe.

The InterNations survey released this week states that the ‘affability level’ is one of the factors that contributes to a happy and successful relocation to any new country.

Portugal's Competition Authority finally has decided not to oppose the government's repurchase of TAP shares from Gateway, made necessary by a pledge by PM Antonio Costa that the taxpayer again would control the loss-making airline.

The Competition Authority approved the reversal of the sale by the PSD/CDS-PP government under Passos Coelho which gave Gateway the upper hand in a deal which netted the Treasury just €20 million and left the taxpayer underwriting over €1 billion in TAP loans.

Many of the Algarve’s more urban councils are concerned at the number of abandoned vehicles clogging up their city centres, yet in many cases the vehicles can not be touched.

In Olhão, the council says that it can not remove certain categories of vehicle, for example when they are owned by a finance company or have been seized through the courts in lieu of debt.

The Algarve’s association for hoteliers has slammed the government and its agencies for doing nothing at all to stamp out illegal rentals of villas and apartments.

The AHETA has condemned the illicit tourism rental in the Algarve and demands appropriate action from Finanças, Tourism of Portugal and local mayors which, it says, have done nothing to stop this illegal business.