Portuguese exports of agricultural and food products increased by 11% in 2013, according to the National Institute of Statistics, but this increase was swamped by a flood of food imports with shoppers eschewing local goods for imported ones.
This consumer behaviour, due primarily to the supermarket chains controlling supply, is easy to change but not seen as Community minded behaviour.
Portugal's public debt has risen an astounding €7 billion to 132.9% of GDP.
Despite punitive austerity measures, allegedly booming tourism receipts and, the public are told, a growing business sector, the government is presiding over a financial fiasco due primarily to its inability to tackle public sector expenditure and taking on over €70 billion in loans from the Troika.
A ‘smart’ seatbelt has been developed in Spain designed to warn drivers if they are starting to fall asleep at the wheel.
The seatbelt will monitor heart rate and can detect when breathing and heart rate slow down.
An increasing number of middle-aged Brits have become the second largest group in the UK to rent their accommodation, with students still holding the number one slot.
People in the 35 to 55 age bracket are renting in greater numbers than before and even sharing accommodation with increasing frequency.
The French economy has been lambasted by the country’s business federation.
“The economic situation of the country is catastrophic … if France was a company, it would be going bankrupt”, said Pierre Gattaz, president of Medef which is similar to the CBI in the UK.
Portimão Urbis is to be wound up, the council finally has decided and workers have been informed.
Around 50 staff already have been sucked back into the council’s mainstream operations but now it's official as the review of the council’s main trading company which runs, among other businesses, the Arade Exhibition Centre (pictured), had been completed.
The Borders and Foreigners agency has been at it again, this time in Albufeira where officers have been swooping on shops and restaurants checking on workers' documents.
SEF officers nabbed 11 illegal aliens working in Albufeira’s warren of catering establishments and shops out of 80 questioned.
Madeira’s entertaining yet exasperating despot, Alberto João Jardim, has managed to spend over €5 million on partying - hard.
Invoices attributable to the leader of the regional government of Madeira’s sense of fun start in 2010 and when totted up hit the €5 million point at which most premiers would seek a darkended room in which to recover.
