TAP sale may yet be shelved

tap2The financial advisors working on the much delayed sale of State airline TAP have asked for another month before submitting an updated valuation of the company.

Sérgio Monteiro, Secretary of State for Infrastructure, Transport & Communications commented that "They gave us a preliminary document. The final document should be submitted by the end of May and they asked for more time as it was necessary to collect more information.”

Europe’s best kept secret - Portugal's beneficial tax regimes

modernhousePortugal may not be the first country that comes to mind when talking about favorable tax regimes but, in fact, Portugal offers a very attractive tax regime to newly resident individuals, referred to as Non-Habitual Residents (NHRs). This regime provides for a flat income tax rate of 20% for qualifying employment and self-employment income and a tax exemption for almost all foreign source income.

Economy Minister, Pires de Lima - 'I have a dream'

piresdelimaEconomy Minister Pires de Lima today stated that "I believe in this economic recovery and I think that in the times that are coming the economic recovery will be at a higher level than the many current predictions suggest."

The joyful evangelist was in Famalicão, Braga during a no doubt riveting commemorative ceremony for the 25th anniversary of the Technological Centre for the Textile and Clothing Trade of Portugal.

State companies fined for Miró fiasco

miroParvalorem and Parups, the two public companies that hold the Miró art collection, have told they must pay fines for the illegal export of the artwork in 2013.

The fine is reportedly €35,000 according to the General Directorate of Heritage.

Algarve Tourist Board boss calls on police not to mess things up

desideriosilvaDesidério Silva is not happy. As head of the Algarve region’s tourist board the last thing he needs is for members of the police to hang around the airport handing out leaflets to tourists informing them they are not safe.

This of course is exactly what is planned and Silva, as chairman of the executive committee of Tourism of the Algarve, formally has called for the National Union of Police to desist in its protest lest its actions spoil the carefully created image of safety that the Algarve has been promoting in the recent past, backed up by statistics showing this indeed is the case.

UK economy returns to pre-crisis levels

londonThe British economy has struggled back to the high point it had attained just before the financial collapse six years ago, according to a think tank.

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said "robust" growth helped the economy grow by between 1% and 1.2% in the three months to April.

British spending habits could spell danger

britishmoneyWith the British economy returning to health, the temptation of consumers to spend themselves into debt could again bring down the economy.

Household debt had rocketed to 170% of disposable income before the crisis. Although it receded during the years of the recession, the drop was small.

Visitors flock to Britain, breaking records

chinesetouristInternational visitors to the UK spent £21billion during the course of 2013, a jump of nearly 13% over 2012.

The number of visits also reached a record with 33 million trips to the UK from abroad, a rise of 6% over 2012.