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A lit Pingo Doce supermarket sign above a shop entrance at dusk in Figueira da Foz, with recycling bins and calcada pavement in the foreground

Markets, Business & Tech Briefing: The PSI Gives Back Thursday's Record, the Bank of Japan Follows the Fed, a Finnish Buyer Steps In for a Guimarães Spinning Mill

📋 In This Edition * The PSI Gave Back Thursday's Record in One Session, and the Week Still Ended Higher * Fifteen of Sixteen Fell, and Mota-Engil Was the Only Name Left Standing * The Bank of Japan Followed the Fed by a Vote of 7 to 2, and Took Its Rate

The Portugal Brief 18 Sep 2026

The steel and glass roof of Terminal 1 at Lisbon airport seen from below, with overhead signage reading partidas departures and terminal 2 above the concourse

Portugal Offers Its Border Officers 160 Euros a Month Backdated to July, and 230 From Next Year, to Stop Them Leaving the Passport Desks

The supplement is aimed only at the PSP's air-border unit and the GNR's coastal and border unit. The ministry says it is meant to prevent a new degradation of the service, and the unions have not accepted it.

The Portugal Brief 18 Sep 2026

The lit Urgencia entrance of Hospital de Santa Maria in Lisbon at night, with yellow INEM ambulances parked outside and staff standing by the revolving door

Portugal's Diagnostic and Therapeutic Technicians Will Stop Work on 9 October, and the Quarrel Is Over Points They Say the New Pay Table Takes Away

The STSS has called a national strike and a rally outside the Health Ministry, with a two-day stoppage pencilled in for late November. Its members refused to sign the government's agreement in principle.

The Portugal Brief 18 Sep 2026

The stone facade of the Banco de Portugal building in Porto under a clear blue sky, with its pedimented central bay and traffic passing on the street in front

The Bank of Portugal Named Its Third Unlicensed Lender in Nine Days on Friday, and This One Takes Its Applications Through a Facebook Page

Financeira Zona and XNET BANCO are not authorised to grant credit in Portugal, the regulator says. Four of its five recent warnings point at a website rather than a building, and the only defence is a free register.

The Portugal Brief 18 Sep 2026

The white and granite baroque front of the Mosteiro de Sao Martinho de Tibaes near Braga, with its twin bell towers and a broad stone stairway rising from a cobbled forecourt

Portugal Throws Open More Than 400 Heritage Visits Until 27 September, From a Taxidermy Lab in Lisbon to a Beach Clean at Sagres

The European Heritage Days run from Friday to 27 September. Most activities are free, many open places that are normally closed, and the theme this year is heritage at risk. Here is what is on and where.

The Portugal Brief 18 Sep 2026

Baggage dollies, a Groundforce tug and passenger steps lined up on the apron at Lisbon Airport beside a jet bridge, with a TAP aircraft taxiing in the background

Portugal Buys Up to Two More Years for the Airport Ground Handling Licences That Were Due to Lapse on 25 October

The Council of Ministers approved a transitional solution on Thursday for Lisbon, Porto and Faro. It is the fourth extension since March 2025, and it lasts until a tender opened in October 2024 finally produces a licensed operator.

The Portugal Brief 18 Sep 2026

A row of pale green three-storey apartment blocks on a street in Rio Tinto near Porto, with one end wrapped in scaffolding and green netting and cars parked along the kerb

For the First Time, More Portuguese Home Loans Sit on a Mixed Rate Than a Variable One, and August's Average Payment Reached 418 Euros

Mixed-rate contracts passed 48 percent of the stock in July, overtaking variable rate for the first time on record. INE puts the average rate at 3.162 percent and the average instalment at 418 euros, exactly half of it interest.

The Portugal Brief 18 Sep 2026

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