Lending to British property buyers has hit its highest level since the Great Recession took hold in mid-2008.

Mortgage lending in January soared 38% compared to the same month in 2015, reaching £13.6bn, according to the British Bankers’ Association.

A two ton haul of hashish was seized near Tavira at dawn on Wednesday in an operation coordinated by the Judicial Police resulting in the arrest of five traffickers in different parts of the Algarve.

According to the police, acting in collaboration with the Marine Police and the Coastal Control Unit of the GNR, the group had been under investigation for about a year.

A Portuguese magistrate at the Central Department of Investigation and Penal Action (DCIAP) is suspected of receiving €200,000 on the same day as he shelved an investigation into the Vice President of Angola, Manuel Vicente.

The investigation had involved tracing the origins of the money used by Vincente to buy a multi-million euro apartment at the exclusive  Estoril Sol Residence.

Novo Banco has posted a loss of €980.6 million for 2015. In a statement sent to the Portuguese Securities Market Commission, the bank stated that the figures reflect €1.054 billion in provisions for customer loans, securities and real estate losses and the cancellation of €160 million of tax losses for 2013.

The bank’s management, led by Stock da Cunha (pictured), also blamed an “unfavourable national environment characterised by still sluggish economic activity, by high unemployment levels and very low interest rates."

The Prime Minister’s rant about the Bank of Portugal dragging its feet over a settlement for the ripped-off BES depositors seems to have hit the spot.

A meeting at the Bank of Portugal has been arranged for tomorrow evening (Wednesday) by its governor Carlos Costa.

It is as if the former Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho had never been running the country as he announced a full package of economic measures to boost the Algarve’s economy during the ‘off season.’

"Mitigating the effects of seasonality", by "improved accessibility and signage, access to credit, tax relief and support for investment, lower unemployment and a reduction in tolls on the Via do Infante” are all part of the basket of measures announced by Passos Coelho during a visit to the headquarters of the Association of Hotels and Resorts in the Algarve, in Albufeira last Friday.

The air quality in the Algarve, Alentejo, Lisbon, the Centre, the North Interior and Madeira has been badly affected by dust from the Sahara desert, reports the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA).

"During February 23rd, the influence of air containing particle concentrations will gradually decrease in intensity due to forecast changes in weather conditions," assures the APA website.

The creation of new companies fell 10.1% in January this year, while the number of insolvent companies increased by 15.8% year-on-year, continuing a concerning trend started in June last year, according to IGNIOS.

Details provided in the risk management company’s report on business and bankruptcy showed that "at the start of the year, the business dynamics in Portugal presented less positive behavior than in the previous two years."