The slump in Portugal’s construction sector is deeper now than it was last year.

Data compiled by Eurostat show that construction was down every month over the last year save for a brief respite in the spring when it rallied by just 1.1%.

The headquarters of Spain’s conservative party was targeted in a car attack today, Friday.

Behind the attack was a bankrupt businessman who rammed a car packed with two gas cylinders into the head office of the governing People’s Party (PP) in central Madrid.

The Socialist Party cannot be said to be helping much over the TAP strike action planned for between Christmas and New Year, today accusing the government of deliberately antagonising the unions by introducing a ‘civil requisition’ into the heady mix of claim and counterclaim.

This devilish parliamentary instrument means that 70% of TAP’s workers are considered the bare minimum to run the troubled carrier and now have no right to take strike action and must report for work.

The imposition of a controversial toll on Germany’s Autobahn network has been given the go-ahead by the German government.

The charges will effectively be for foreign users of the Autobahn as German residents will be able to offset the costs against their tax.

IKEA has announced that it is launching an online store in Spain similar to the e-commerce platform it runs in the US, Holland and the UK. "The aim is to facilitate purchases through various sales channels," according to the company.

To back up the Swedish multinational’s online offering, IKEA also is building a new type of store format located in city centres, one of which is due to be located in the Algarve next year.

The UK government has received £1.36bn from the Iceland bank Icesave.

The Treasury says it now has 85% of the money the UK paid out in compensation to those savers who lost money with the bank went bust in 2008.

The powerful European Banking Authority has revealed further information supplied by the Bank of Portugal on whether measures had been taken to detect or halt money laundering at BES Angola.

According to the European Banking Authority, following an  interim forensic audit report on Banco Espírito Santo, offences were highlighted in October 2014 involving, among other things, the relationship between Banco Espírito Santo and its Angolan subsidiary, "including inadequate procedures in terms of money laundering prevention."

Sales in the UK on Black Friday had a “significant impact”, particularly for department stores, according to the ONS.

Retail sales soared to their strongest annual pace in more than a decade. Volumes rose by 1.6% in November compared with October while economists had predicted only 0.4%.