The Government today approved the creation of the Hospital and University Center of the Algarve management structure which will run the region’s hospitals, the Centre for Medicine and Rehabilitation of the South (CMRSul) and research link to the University of Algarve.

This ‘everything under one management’ system will "improve efficiency, create cost savings and use doctors and staff more efficiently while strengthening the connection to the University with medical courses offering health professionals a opportunity train and research." 

More than 600 workers are leaving the high street bank, BPI, the majority under a redundancy programme that started in April 2017.

The cost of the programme to date is €106 million which will bring an annual saving of €36 million.

The Portuguese co-founder of Altice has criticised Portugal’s government and has made the error of assuming that, because the French-owned group owns significant assets in the country, it is above the rules and regulations that govern domestic companies.

Altice’s Armando Pereira said today that the Portuguese government "often does not see the importance" of the French group's investment in Portugal and said that he senses that the government “does not like” the company that bought PT Portugal two years ago and currently is buying the company that owns Media Capital SA along with its significant Portuguese media assets.

Bans on certain activities that waste precious water have been imposed in fifteen council areas of the drought-struck Alentejo, especially in the Sado river basin.

Water consumption will have to be reduced immediately due to the drought across the country but is hitting the Alentejo hard and restrictions are now agreed.

Portugal’s verges are awash with glyphosate, 51,000 litres a year, according to environmentalist association, Zero.

With only slight progress being made with Portugal’s councils to limit the use of glyphosate organophosphates to kill weeds, Portugal’s national road and rail company is showing even less interest in banning the use of Roundup on the country's verges.

Portuguese and Spanish fleets are capturing too many sardines and the recommendation to the European Commission is to ban its fishing for at least fifteen years to allow stocks to rise.

This drastic suggestion comes from the Commission's advisory body on fishing quotas and was slammed by Portugal’s Secretary of State for Fishing, José Apolinário, who claimed the 'Evaluation of the management plan for Iberian sardine' report used old data.

Two high ranking managers at Infraestruturas de Portugal officially have been made suspects in the four-year-old Operation Marquês investigation.

One of the suspects also is a former PSD member of parliament. The two suspects, who belong to the senior management team of the company, have been involved in the TGV railway project.

Pierre Moscovici may well have been right, Portugal’s economic performance is accelerating hard, driven by the service sector and by private consumption of food and non-food items, which has recorded the biggest increase since May 2001, alongside a pleasing increase in exports.

During a flying visit on July 18th, Moscovici predicted that Portugal’s deficit will be 1.8% this year and that economic growth "will probably be above 2.5%."