More than half of the fast-moving consumer goods market in Portugal is made up of private label* brands, but they account for only one-third of the value of supermarket sales.

These figures from the third edition of the study "Brands + Consumers", a partnership of Centromarca and Kantar Worldpanel, which focuses on the evolution of the fast-moving consumer goods market in Q4 2016, as reported by Diário de Noticias.

At least four million home owners in Portugal are being overcharged when paying their their property rates bills (IMI), warns the consumer watchdog, Deco

The coefficients that go into the long and complicated equation used to calculate the annual property tax have been set so that, on average,  each householder is paying an extra €100 or more.

The Public Prosecutor in  Faro has now charged 29 suspects with corruption, fraud and criminal association.

The defendants include a court official who is accused of slipping minimum price details to others for vehicles due to be auctioned off by the State so bids could be lodged at just over the lowest acceptable price, or just over any other bids.

Fortunately for the Portuguese taxpayer, the gentlemen at the British auction house, Christie’s, have agreed to cancel the contract to sell the Joan Miró collection, without requiring payment or seeking damages.

The Finance Ministry today announced that Parvalorem and Parups have reached an agreement with Christie’s to rescind the sale by auction agreement for the collection of 85 works by the Spanish painter.

Portugal is on a short-list of two countries of which easyJet will request a local Air Operator’s Certificate due to post-Brexit complications if it wants to keep flying on European routes outside the UK.

The airline’s management has been in talks with the Portuguese government over registering an affiliate company in Portugal so it can keep running easyJet domestic operations across Europe.

Ana Mendes Godinho, the Secretary of State for Tourism, said the Alojamento Local system for short-term rentals has been a key part of the success of the booming tourism sector, accounting for 10% of overnight stays last year, provising  12% of the number of total beds available to tourists.

Godinho was speaking at a review of 2016 tourism figures organised by the Associação de Restauração e Similares de Portugal and was expected to announce her review of the Alojamento Local system and list the changes that she was going to make.

The Court of Auditors has criticised the Ministry of Finance for "a lack of control" over Caixa Geral de Depósitos between 2013 and 2015.

The audit report conducted by the Ministry of Finance for the period between 2013 and 2015, refers to a "lack of state control" of the State-owned bank in that period after the 2012 recapitalisation when taxpayers were obliged to throw €1.65 billion at the troubled lender.

Those who have recently discovered Portugal and specifically, its capital city Lisbon, will have wondered how this Atlantic jewel managed to remain for so long off the tourist map. The reasons for this are many but for those who stumble on the shell and discover the pearl hidden inside, it matters little. They are already addicted.

On December 1 (sic) in the year 1755 Lisbon suffered one of the planet's worst ever earthquakes, followed by an equally devastating tidal wave. Twenty per cent of the population was killed or seriously injured and a great part of the city's infrastructures crumbled. Many of those that remained, burnt.