A stiff letter from the Premier FX solicitors was recieved by media on Thursday, claiming current Directors, Charlie Rextrew and Katy Grogan, founder Peter Rexstrew's children, have been threatened on social media "fuelled in no small part by misleading press articles, based on assumptions and suspicion, with no evidential material to support the same."

The foreign exchange business shut down on July 27th, leaving hundreds of customers without funds, many losing their life savings and at least one losing the money destined to purchase their Algarve retirement home.

António Ramalho, the boss of Novo Banco, does not have a definitive answer on the disclosure of large debtors and says the banking system has to regain public confidence

One of the steps in the noble but unachievable objective of bankers regaining public confidence, may be, in "very exceptional" cases, to reveal which debtors have caused such problems in the banking sector.

Consumer pressure group, DECO, argues that the VAT rate should be set at 6% for all energy and that reverting to the intermediate rate of 13% is not good enough.

"We see no reason for an essential service such as energy to continue to be taxed at 23%. And, let's face it, the 13% interim rate is not enough to offset all the sacrifices consumers have made,” thunders the organisation, adding:

A public servant in charge of fishing licences managed to siphon off €83,000 over eight years before anyone spotted she was at it.

The Public Ministry has accused the employee at the Agriculture and Fisheries Directorate for the north of the country of diverting the money handed over by fishermen.

Nine days after the search began for missing Briton, Richard Chapelow, the underwater operation has been suspended.

The 29-year-old holidaymaker, staying as a guest of the British billionaire, Jon Hunt, at Mount Albricoque in the parish of Santana da Serra, Ourique, disappeared under the water of the Santa Clara dam on Wednesday, 20th of August.

The summer heatwave that caused a sharp decline in grape production in several regions of the country has not affected the Algarve in the same way, with local producers optimistic that this year’s harvest will be a bumper one.

Last year’s harvest was up 50% on 2016 but this record should be smashed, with the president of the Algarve Wine Commission saying there is no reason why the Algarve should not be producing more than 2 million litres a year. 

The end of June unemployment rate fell to 6.8%, 'the lowest since September 2002,' according to the confirmed figure from the National Statistics Institute.

"The unemployment rate for June 2018, at 6.8% was down 0.2 percentage points from the previous month, down 0.7 percentage points from three months earlier and down 2.3 percentage points from June 2017," explained the Institute, with trademark brevity.

Nature tourism company, ProActiveTur and Monchique Council are keen to promote the old path between Caldas de Monchique and Picota as a bracing, fun and interesting walk.

Hidden for years by an industrial density of eucalyptus and the unchecked growth of scrub, the old path was rediscovered after fire swept through the area this August, leaving 27,000 hectares of burnt trees, rural properties and equipment.