The Portugal Brief

Banking

Bank of Portugal Governor Álvaro Santos Pereira Disposes of Nestlé and Navigator Shares After ECB Ethics Committee Pulls Him Back Inside the Single Supervisory Mechanism's Stricter Code — Capital Gains Donated to Charity

Bank of Portugal governor Álvaro Santos Pereira sold shares in Nestlé, Navigator, Galp and Jerónimo Martins after the ECB Ethics Committee informed him on 1 April that the SSM code bars governors from holding equities of any non-financial issuer. Capital gains were donated to charity.

30 April 2026

Politics

Parliament Moves to Stop Twenty-Two Competition Authority Cases Worth €800 Million From Going Out the Door on Prescription — Lawyers Warn the Retroactive Fix Will Land at the Constitutional Court

Parliament is debating a draft Concorrência amendment that would freeze prescription clocks for 22 ongoing AdC cases — fines totalling roughly €800 million, much on the food-distribution cartel — currently at risk of being annulled by elapsed time. Lawyers warn of retroactivity.

30 April 2026

Economy

INE's March Unemployment Read Holds at 5.8% as the Labour Underutilisation Rate Slips to 9.8% — Employed Population Reaches 5.07 Million, the Highest March Reading in the Quarterly Labour Force Survey Series

INE's provisional March 2026 release leaves the unemployment rate at 5.8% — flat on February, 0.5pp below March 2025 — while labour underutilisation eases to 9.8%. The employed population sits at 5.07 million, the strongest March reading in the LFS series.

30 April 2026

Business

Lone Star Closes the Door on Eight Years at Novo Banco as French Group BPCE Takes 100% Ownership Today — Portugal's Fourth-Largest Bank Crosses Into the Hands of Europe's Second-Biggest Cooperative on 30 April 2026

BPCE — the French cooperative banking group behind Banque Populaire and Caisse d'Épargne — completes the €6.4 billion acquisition of Novo Banco on 30 April, ending Lone Star's eight-year ownership and folding Portugal's fourth-largest bank into a 32-million-customer European retail group.

30 April 2026

Business

CP More Than Doubles Its 2025 Profit to €4.8 Million on a Record 208 Million Passengers — Comboios de Portugal Exits the General Government Sector and Will Gain Procurement Autonomy in 2027

Comboios de Portugal closed 2025 with a €4.8M profit — up 166% — on 208M passengers, helped by the €20 Passe Ferroviário Verde. INE has now removed CP from the general government institutional sector register, which from 2027 will hand the operator full management and procurement autonomy.

30 April 2026

Business

Gustavo Paulo Duarte Elected to Lead the CCP for the 2026-2029 Term — Sixteen-Year Vieira Lopes Era Closes at the Confederation's Fiftieth-Anniversary General Assembly

The CCP elected Gustavo Paulo Duarte president on Wednesday at its 50th-anniversary General Assembly. The former ANTRAM head and CCP vice-president since 2022 takes a 2026-2029 mandate; João Vieira Lopes moves to the General Council after sixteen years in charge.

30 April 2026

Economy

Bank of Portugal's March Statistical Release Catches Mortgage-Credit Growth at 10.3% — Strongest Annual Pace Since 2003 and Comfortably Above the Eurozone's 2.9%

BdP March data puts the housing-loan stock at €113.6bn — the largest balance since September 2011 — and stamps a 10.3% year-on-year growth rate, the highest since February 2003. Consumer credit climbs 8.5% and business credit 5.6%, both at multi-year highs.

30 April 2026