The Bank of Portugal expects a strong deceleration of the Portuguese economy in a pessimistic revision issued today.
The forecasts is for a drop in economic activity between now and 2021, with GDP growth of 2.1% this year, 1.8% in 2019, 1.7% in 2020 and 1.6% in 2021.
The European Court of Auditors has underlined the very real danger of continuing to invest in intensive agriculture and the unsustainable practices that often are involved.
In a special report to the European Parliament, the Court of Auditors highlights the harmful effects of intensive agriculture and the government’s reliance on policies that are out of date and out of place, such as the development of irrigation systems in a country where water is becoming increasingly scarce.
Members of the Algarve Free of Petroleum Platform (PALP) met yesterday with the newly installed Secretary of State of Energy, João Galamba, to question the existence - and ask for access - of the document confirming the resignation of the Galp and ENI from the contracts for the Aljezur oil drill.
The Platform also questioned the Secretary of State on the new Ministry’s strategy regarding the energetic transition that was recently included in its competencies.
Portuguese hoteliers increasingly are admitting that Brexit is hitting their figures and that in 2019, the number of British visitors will decline further.
The departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Brexit) is increasingly being cited as a constraint to hotel profits and growth, according to a survey of Portuguese hoteliers carried out by the Association of Hospitality of Portugal, with its members commenting on 2018 and their prospects for 2019.
José Pontes Correia, a now former director of Portugal’s railway company, has been sacked for speaking up about passenger safety.
As the man in charge of railway carriages and engine units, Correia was well positioned to comment on the danger to the public of extending the life of certain carriage classes.
Next year, electricity bills for over a million customers, those still in the regulated market, will drop 3.5% following an Energy Services Regulatory Entity (ERSE) decision announced on Monday, December 17.
This is a swing to the positive, a revision of the ERSE October proposal, which had envisaged a 0.1% rise in tariffs.
The Terras do Infante Association of Municipalities, the group of three west coast Councils led by Aljezur’s disgraced former mayor, José Amarelhino, has made public its "most vehement repudiation" of the planned 2019 closures of the post offices in Sagres and Praia da Luz.
This decision, according to Vila do Bispo, Lagos and Aljezur’s mayors, 'goes against the interests of the populations concerned, given that they are services close to customers and are particularly vital to the aging population as well as to tourists and foreign residents.”
A painting by the C17th master, Josefa de Óbidos, has been bought by a collector at auction in Barcelona, potentially thwarting Óbidos Council’s plans to secure the canvas for public viewing.
Portugal’s Ministry of Culture did not buy the picture “because it would have to ask (Finance Minister) Centeno for permission,” said a Council spokesperson, adding that it had been informed too late to start this process.
