Helena Borges is taking the top job at the Tax and Customs Authority, Finanças to you and me, in a move that recognises her problem solving ability as much as her technical grasp of the multi-faceted department, its technology and internecine rivalries.

Certain problem areas need dealing with urgently including the damage done by the exposure of a VIP taxpayers’ list, the e-billing system that fails to take into account those sole traders without computer access or skills (35% of the population still has no access to the Internet), an internal power struggle that has affected the smooth running of the most important department of government, and collecting taxes from those who claim poverty, the list is a long one.

Moody's has downgraded Novo Banco in a rating cut to "poor quality and very high credit risk" that shows the recent Bank of Portugal move to recapitalise the loss-making bank has backfired.

Moody's believes that even the latest solvency situation at Novo Banco "can further worsen" even after the Bank of Portugal authorised the transfer of €1.985 billion in bonds from Novo Banco back to the bombed out BES.

Spain’s Podemos party said its MPs will forego many of the perks traditionally enjoyed by parliamentarians.

As well as limiting their salaries, privileges, such as housing benefits, taxi money, and some expenses, will be curtailed.

The National Entity for the Fuel Market (ENMC) is coming back to the Algarve to again try and explain why oil and gas exploration is such a good idea for the region.

The public hearing aims to clarify the issues surrounding oil exploration in the Algarve, on January 12, at the University of the Algarve's Escola Superior de Saúde.

While consumers are most likely to be pleased that inflation remains low, economists are disappointed.

Eurozone inflation registered just 0.2% in December. Analysts had expected a higher figure by the end of the year.

The privately owned airline Hi Fly is to store two Airbus aircraft at Beja airport, following national airport operator ANA's new strategy of promoting the use of the almost deserted airport for medium and long-term parking.

The first aircraft, an Airbus A340-300, flew in from Havana today and the second, an Airbus A340-500, will arrive from Helsinki on the 13th of January.

Migrants trying to enter the Spanish enclave of Melilla have now become part of the US presidential election campaign landscape after hopeful Donald Trump included footage of it, claiming it was the US border with Mexico.

Donald Trump’s first TV ad for his campaign shows migrants climbing a tall barrier wall. The narrator says Trump will “stop illegal immigration by building a wall on our southern border that Mexico will pay for.”

Former Socialist Prime Minister José Sócrates, released from jail last September and currently on bail, is the guest speaker at the debate "Politics, Justice and Indifference" taking place on January 9th in Vila Real de Santo António, Algarve.

The session will be moderated by the Mayor of Vila Real de Santo António, Luís Gomes, and aims to discuss the question of justice, the courts and the new approaches to contribute to the functioning of institutions.