Industrial output picked up in the eurozone during September, growing by an average 0.6% over August this year.
But this was not the case for Portugal where industrial production suffered a drop of -4.1%. This was the greatest decrease in all of the eurozone countries.
The second greatest fall was -2% experienced in the Netherlands.
Output in Portugal has been mercurial over the last six months. A rise in April was followed by two months of declines but in July and August production was up in both months.
On average across the euro region, September saw the production of a healthy increase of 3% in capital goods, such as machinery, equipment, treatment plants and the like.
This jump carried the overall increase, as the output of other items declined. Durable and non-durable consumer goods, such as food, video games, sports goods, TVs, refrigerators and the like, dropped.
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And equally so that their Spainish cousins apparently - to the Portuguese - put a lot of effort into rubbishing Portuguese output.
With the result that the Portuguese struggle to convince other EU states that they are actually effectively regulating their production.
This mini-Bhopal poisoning of a Lisbon residential area, apparently just the latest of many. And a history of respiratory problems near petro-chemical and industrial plants just confirms that regulation has indeed been non-existent.
And, knowing that they would not have to spend big money cleaning the toxicity from their airborne emissions - is certainly one of the main attractions for these foreign manufacturers to come to Portugal in the first place.
Why does no one ask, with a Portuguese population predominantly within say 20 miles of their coastline - why are so many thousands nationwide dying from respiratory illnesses as well as tens of thousands more suffering daily from 'bad air' ?
Let us now have some 'regulation' !