Henrique Granadeiro today resigned from the board of Portugal Telecom, wanting to defend the "interests of shareholders," and wrote that he always had acted "in the best interest of PT, its employees and all its shareholders."

The joint Chief Executive and Chairman of Portugal Telecom resigned over the disasterous investment in Espírito Santo Group offshoot Rioforte where PT has lost up to €900 million.

A parliamentary session today fired questions at the teflon coated Finance Minister Maria Luís Albuquerque about the Government and the Bank of Portugal's solution for the bust Banco Espírito Santo.

The standing committee members questioned Albuquerque who set out to provide her version of events when describing the Bank of Portugal taking control of BES and separating it into a bad bank and a good bank, at a cost of €4.9 billion from the Resolution Fund.

In the first seven months of this year, the Portuguese government has seized and sold over 49,000 houses and apartments from citizens owing tax.

Taking and auctioning off homes and cars is said to be the “last resort,” by a government that does it anyway, with cold efficiency and in record numbers.

The Portuguese Confederation of Construction and Real Estate is delighted for its members as the amount spent on real estate under the Golden Visa scheme is predicted to reach €2 billion next year.

The scheme to lure already wealthy foreigners to Portugal already has attracted €750 million in investment in real estate and a tax exemption for foreign retirees has attracted 3,000 families to Portugal in an attempt to replace the tens of thousands of young workers who have left the country to pay tax elsewhere.

The European Central Bank has decided to take no action this month, other than warning that Russia’s boycott of food items from the EU could harm the region’s economic recovery.

Interest rates are fixed just where they were last month, including the refinancing rate of 0.15% and other rates cuts introduced in June to stimulate growth.

Despite the criticism he received during the TV debate on independence for Scotland, First Minister Alex Salmond is sticking to his guns and still insisting that Scotland will retain sterling if independence is voted for.

He said a formal currency union with the rest of the UK was the best option, saying: "It's Scotland's pound and we are keeping it."

Interest rates in the UK have been kept at 0.5%, where they have been for 65 months since March 2009.

The Bank also announced the its economic stimulus programme would remain at £375bn.

The Wall Street Journal reports today that a London hedge fund may have made profits of $27 million in shorting BES shares.

Tens of millions of dollars of profit may have resulted from betting on the collapse of Banco Espírito Santo as hedge funds, mysteriously ‘in the know,’ bet on its share price falling.