Portugal’s much trumpeted Golden Visa programme is close to a standstill as 4,000 non-EC investors sit and wait for news of their applications.

At the current rate of progress, the backlog will take five years to clear after the Operation Labyrinth investigation into corruption and money laundering saw 11 people arrested and stricter rules put in place. 

The Minister for Internal Administration, Miguel Macedo, stepped down while denying any wrongdoing. He later was arrested.

Charles Every, thought to be the Algarve’s oldest foreign resident, celebrated his 100th birthday yesterday, Wednesday, 20 January.

It was cause for a double and nearly a triple celebration. Charles’s granddaughter, Kelly, who lives in England, was also born on January 20. She gave birth to her first baby, a girl, last week.

One of the unions representing the Algarve’s tourism workers is concerned about lay-offs at the Sheraton Algarve at the Pine Cliffs resort near Albufeira.

More than concern, union leaders have expressed "great amazement" when it became aware that United Investments Portugal, the owner of the Pine Cliffs Resort, which includes the Sheraton Algarve Hotel, once again has laid-off staff at the same time as carrying out major investment such as the recent purchase of Vivamarinha Hotel & Suites, located in Quinta da Marinha in Cascais, and the construction of the new Vale do Freixo Golf & Country resort in the Loulé council area.

Portugal's Socialist government has a nagging pain in its flank as its left wing party colleagues continue to pressure the prime minister to make good on pre-election pledges, without regard to cost.

It is becoming clear that Prime Minister Antónia Costa’s original enthusiasm on grasping the reins of power has been somewhat tempered by financial reality.

Does he have a grasp of the finances or will this be another Socialsist Party highway to penury?

Ikea in Portugal has followed the lead set by German food retailer Lidl in December 2015 and is increasing the minimum wage paid to its workers to €600 a month.

Ikea Portugal said the move is for its full-time employees and represents an average wage rise of 2.38%.

Inequalities have risen sharply in Spain more than any country in the OECD group of nations with the exception of Cyprus.

A report from Oxfam says the disparities have become greater in Spain since 2007 than even Greece or Mexico.

The Bank of Portugal, having relaunched the sale of Novo Banco after plugging a hole in the bank’s finances by transferring €2 billion in bonds into the black hole of BES, has left open legal avenues for the ripped-off bondholders to be compensed from the Resolution Fund.

Last year, the Bank of Portugal failed to find a buyer at the right price for Novo Banco as not one company was inclined to pay the €4.9 billion needed to get the central bank’s governor Carlos Costa off the hook.

The weight of plastic rubbish in the sea will outweigh that of fish there by 2050, according to a report to the World Economic Forum in Davos.

At least eight million tonnes of plastic materials get into the ocean each year, with packaging thought to be the worst offender, said a global study by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation fronted by the yachtswoman.