Electricity consumption edged up 0.2% in 2013 after two years of decline but if variations in temperature and the number of working days are both taken into account, the growth was close to zero.

According to data from REN, which runs Portugal’s national grid, after a fall of 1.7% in electricity consumption in the first half of 2013 there was a recovery in the second half of the year which meant that the year overall saw a rise of 0.2%.

In the first eleven months of 2013 the Portuguese spent €1.624 billion on the lottery and on scratch cards, to the cheery delight of the Santa Casa da Misericórdia.

This corresponds to an average of €147.6 million per month, €4.8m per day. The data show that the Santa Casa Euromillions is the game that attracts the most money, some €855 million to the end of November.

ABTA – The Travel Association, today released its Travel Trends Report 2014, developed in association with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

The report predicts cautious optimism in the holiday market for the year ahead with consumers continuing to holiday and planning to spend more than they did in 2013. For Portugal, the reports lists "great food, historic cities, endless rugged coastline and stunning scenery, and lots of charm" and lists the country in its 'Destinations to Watch' section.

Portugal’s President’s New Year speech praises the "relevance" of the 2014 Budget and did not note any doubts he might have about the constitutionality of the 2014 State Budget, unlike last year when he referred the 2013 Budget to the Constitutional Court.

In the message sent to the Portuguese people the President referred to the 2014 State Budget as an instrument of paramount importance to achieve the central goal of ending the financial assistance programme successfully and for accessing external financing markets at reasonable rates.

Between November 25 and December 29, over 40 million withdrawals were made from the nation’s ATMs as Portuguese shoppers withdrew €2.77 billion in cash as part of a €6 billion Christmas spending spree.

The data released by SIBS, the company that manages the ATM network, shows also that in the same period 78.9 million payments were made with a total value of €3.301 billion.

Competition between footballers Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi is an on-off battle on the pitch but the fight has been taken to the bedroom as the two footballer compete in a vote about sex.

The Spanish magazine Primera Línea questioned 12 porn actresses about which of the two men they most would like to 'join them' in a movie. The competition was fierce, but Messi got the better of Reinaldo.

Alcoutim council is leading a local movement to join the neighbouring Spaniards in order to attract EU funds.

The mayor of Alcoutim expects his municipality to join up with three Spanish counties bordering his patch and that of neighbouring Mértola so as successfully to apply for European funds under the next Community Support Framework funding round.

Even by the standards of Portugal’s well-deserved and worldwide reputation for lack of effort when it comes to processing paperwork a new petition that has been lodged 418 years after the event may have set a new national record.

There was a bit of local difficulty in 1596 when Robert Devereux, the Earl of Essex attacked Faro in search of riches. He found nothing much of value except a rather fine library owned by the Bishop of the Algarve, Fernando Martins Mascarenhas which was duly removed and given to Devereux's friend back in Blighty, one Thomas Bodley. This collection of books formed the basis of Oxford’s Bodleian Libray in 1602.