A deal on the EU’s budget for 2015 has been reached among the European Parliament and EU governments.

The spending total has been set at €141.2bn (£111.2bn).

Novo Banco today announced the successful €379 million sale of Banco Espírito Santo de Investimento (BESI) to Haitong, a Chinese company specialising in financial services.

In a statement sent to the Portuguese Securities Market Commission (CMVM), Novo Banco said that the sale is of course "dependent on the necessary approval from the Bank of Portugal, the European Commission, the competition authorities and a number of other authorities exercising direct supervision over buyer."

A proposed new EU tax on financial transactions is now unlikely to come into effect by its 2016 deadline.

Finance ministers from the 11 countries, including Portugal, which had been keen to introduce the tax were to agree the basics of the tax this week, but were unable because the talks broke down in disagreement.

People in the UK believe that immigration is a more pressing concern than people in Germany.

Forty per cent of the British public view immigration as the most pressing issue facing the country. In Germany, this was just over 20%, according to a poll conducted by Ipsos Mori.

A new airless tyre is coming into production which is promised never to go flat.

Michelin research engineers have created a tyre which, instead of being pneumatic, is a combination of a wheel and a tyre which forms one solid unit.

Portugal’s Tourist Board, through state company Empresa Nacional de Turismo (Enatur), currently controls the Pousadas de Portugal hotel business with the Pestana Group holding a minority shareholding of 49% through Grupo Pestana Pousadas.

The groundwork for a sale of the state’s 51% ownership of Pousadas de Portugal to Pestana Group is to be completed by the end of this year.

The president of the Eurogroup said today that Portugal will have to prove that its proposed measures in next year’s state budget "are effective."

The finance ministers of the eurozone met this morning to discuss the European Commission’s views and opinions to the 2015 budget proposals from member states and were not happy about Portugal's over-optimistic forecasts.

Portugal’s Travel agency bosses fear the aftermath of the privatisation of TAP, or more specifically they fear what will happen if the privatisation is botched.

Enter one Pedro Costa Ferreira, who as the president of the Portuguese Association of Travel Agencies said today on behalf of his members that all are "very concerned" about the privatisation of TAP and fear that "if it is poorly carried out, it may have irreparable consequences for Portuguese tourism."