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UK interest rates kept on hold

bankofenglandThe Bank of England has kept the interest rates at the historic low of 0.5%. January is the 70th consecutive month beginning in March 2009 for the record rates.

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) also decided to keep the size of the Bank's economic stimulus programme, known as quantitative easing (QE), unchanged at £375bn.

Portimão - buried Briton had suffered a violent attack

justiceWith the British expat Nigel Jackson held on charges of murdering his partner and burying her under concrete in their garden, the secrecy surrounding the case is close to zero.

Variously described as a golf lover, former taxi driver and odd job man, Jackson’s story that Brenda Davidson committed suicide failed to impress police who soon discovered that Davidson’s neck had suffered severe and violent wounds, evident when she was unwrapped from the plastic sheeting in which she had been buried.

Bye-bye hopes of a happy new year

alentejoview1No sooner had families and friends around the world exchanged best wishes for a healthy, happy and prosperous 2015 than the news broke about Her Majesty’s second son.

A woman alleged that a billionaire American investment banker used her as an under-age ‘sex slave’ and forced her to have repeated sexual relations in London, New York and on a private Caribbean island with rich and famous friends, including Prince Andrew.

December tourist figures boosted by dependable Brits

vilavitaThe Portuguese and the Brits were responsible for some good figures last December in a last month boost to the region’s economy.

Revenues from hotels and tourist developments in the Algarve increased 6.6% in December, the month in which the overall average occupancy rate was 29.0%, some 6.6% more than in 2013.

Deflation now traps eurozone

eumapThe eurozone has dropped into deflation, according to Eurostat which estimates that prices in December were -0.2% lower than a year earlier.

This is against the European Central Bank’s target of just under 2%.

Portugal suffers 4th highest unemployment in eurozone

unemployedThe unemployment rate in the eurozone in November stood at 11.5%, stable compared with October but down from 11.9% in November 2013.

For Portugal, November’s rate of 13.9% was a shade higher than the 13.6% in October but a healthy drop from 15.4% in November 2013.

Strong revival in UK entrepreneurial spirit

dysonLast year appears to have been the year of the British entrepreneur as the UK saw a record number of new businesses start up.

Research has shown that 581,173 businesses were registered with Companies House last year.

'Body in the garden' Brit charged with homicide

gnrpatrolThis afternoon the police had gathered enough evidence for a charge of homicide to be levelled by the prosecutor at an expat Briton over the 'body in the garden.'

The corpse of a British woman who had been missing since last November was found by police last night, buried in the garden of the isolated house where she had lived for around ten years near Alcalar, Portimão, according to a police source this morning.