The more accurate figures is 22.3% of those people in Portugal now living elsewhere, the most popular destination in recent years being the ‘old ally’ Britain.
The number of emigrants born in Portugal now has exceeded 2.3 million, 22.3% of the Portuguese population.
Support for Portugal’s agricultural sector continues with an eye-watering €1.7 billion delivered to farmers during the course of 2016.
The final payment for the year was released today by the Ministry of Agriculture with €463.2 million in ‘aid,’ under various headings, winging its way to farmers and agricultural businesses across the country.
The cement producer Cimpor has announced that production at its Loulé plant will be resumed in February, 2017 and it will bring back suspended workers, although how many of the 57 that were laid off are to be taken back, remains to be announced.
Cimpor reports that "a slight sign of a recovery in the domestic market and a more positive expectation on the export front have created the minimum conditions to fire up the furnace again at the Loulé production centre with the layoff period officially ending on January 31st, 2017."
As the Algarve’s hoteliers gear up for a record-breaking New Year’s Eve across the Algarve, the region’s hotel workers’ trade union organised a high-profile demonstration in Vilamoura on Thursday.
The dismissal of three employees from the Crowne Plaza Hotel has been slammed by union leaders as "illegal," and part of a general trend of "increasing employer repression In recent months."
In a price hike designed to make the Algarve’s motorway drivers see red, the Via do Infante is to have the highest toll increase in the country.
With the current government, as the last, unprepared to listen to the sound economic arguments against having tolls at all on the region’s artery, the January 1st increases are 15 cents for Class 1 vehicles, and 20 cents for others.
The GNR has given due warning to motorists that between December 30th and next January 2nd, the nation’s motorists can expect an increase in the number of roadside inspection points and an increased number of mobile units.
Patrol and roadside inspections will focus on routes to and from locations associated with the New Year’s Eve festivities, where the GNR also will be in evidence to increase the safety of revellers, to prevent road accidents by removing drunk drivers from the nation’s roads.
Civil engineering contractors working in the Largo das Mouras Velhas in the centre of Faro have unearthed an ancient burial site.
Work in the carpark near the Lethes Theatre had to be suspended on Tuesday while the grim discovery was analyzed and catalogued by specialists.
The recapitalisation of Caixa Geral de Depósitos now will take place in 2017 to keep the effects of the capital increase from showing up in this year’s national accounts.
The postponement already has been authorised by the European Central Bank, with the first part of the recapitalisation planned for this year to take place in the first week of 2017.
