The economy in Spain grew by 3.2% last year, according to official figures released on Monday.

The result mirrored that of 2015 and was one of the best among EU countries.  Eurostat statistics indicate that average annual growth in the euro block was 1.7% in the third quarter of 2016.

The one year course for 886 trainee tax inspectors is stretching into its third - but not becasue the students are dim.

The Ministry of Finance refuses to announced when this torment will end despite the trainees having completed all the necessary tests to become tax inspectors. As they remain as lowly paid trainees for no good reason, it can be assumed that the reason is cost.

Car manufacturing giant Volkswagen has become the world’s leading car seller.

VW sales in 2016 outpaced those of Japan’s Toyota which been the top seller for the last four years.

Novo Banco bidder, Lone Star, has dropped its insistence that the Portuguese taxpayer should underwrite the bank’s non-performing loan book.

The US fund also is working with un-named Portuguese financial institutions and individuals to improve its image in the eyes of the Bank of Portugal.

Humberto Nunes, a 55-year-old reservist in the GNR, drowned in the Arade while trying to reach the riverbank from his vehicle, which has been stranded mid-way across.

The accident was in the S. Bartolomeu de Messines area of Silves.

There are not as many British expats living in EU countries as had previously been thought, according to research by the Office of National Statistics.

Some 890,000 British citizens are dotted around the EU, with the lion’s share of 308,805 in Spain.

A radical new law has been approved by Barcelona’s city government to clamp down on massive tourism.

The regulations will cap the number of beds available in hotels and private rentals for short-term visitors through the creation of a special urban plan as one step to regulate tourist numbers.

Portuguese Finance Minister Mario Centeno said debt is declining and funding for this year is “under control” as European officials urged reforms following an increase in the country’s borrowing costs.

“We have a cash buffer that is large enough to face the year in a comfortable position,” Centeno said in a Bloomberg Television interview on Thursday in Brussels. The minister said he doesn’t expect Portugal will have to rely on that cash buffer instead of market financing. “We have a year that is pretty much under control in terms of funding.”