General Daily Briefing: Thursday, 15 October 2026
Saving for Retirement with a PPR in Portugal
How a PPR retirement savings plan works in Portugal: the 20% tax deduction and its age limits, when you can withdraw, how withdrawals are taxed, and fees.
Good morning. Here is your Thursday briefing for 15 October 2026: the day's essential Portugal stories for residents, immigrants and anyone keeping an eye on the country, below this week's featured guide.
- Transport: a draft law would stop bus operators from running the coach terminals they use, giving Lisbon's Sete Rios up to four years to change.
- Justice: more than 27,700 cases had waited over four years in the lower courts by the end of 2024, most of them insolvencies.
- Debt: the state paid 3.897 percent to borrow over ten years, its costliest ten-year bond auction since at least 2014.
- Aviation: Porto airport grew 7.1 percent in the year to August while Lisbon managed 0.8 percent, as passenger records kept falling.
- Health: SNS doctors can now prescribe a remote pelvic floor rehabilitation programme run by Sword Health.
- Environment: Portugal collected only 32 percent of its electrical waste in 2024, and one in six people has binned small gadgets.
A Shake-Up for Coach Terminals
A government draft decree-law, reported by Jornal de Negócios, would bar companies that manage road passenger terminals from conflicts of interest with the bus operators using them. Access could be refused on only three grounds, concessions would be capped at ten years, and existing contracts would have two to four years to adapt. Sete Rios, run by Rede Expressos and now also used by FlixBus, would get up to four. Nothing changes yet for passengers.
Old Cases Clog the Courts
A survey by the Conselho Superior da Magistratura found 27,705 of 260,450 cases in first-instance courts pending for more than four years at the end of 2024, led by insolvencies. Lisboa Norte had the highest share, at 23.86 percent. Another 163,797 debt enforcement cases had also passed four years, and the judges' council warns that the Citius system cannot fully guarantee reliable statistics.
Dearer Borrowing for the State
The debt agency IGCP sold 769 million euros of ten-year bonds at 3.897 percent on Wednesday, the highest rate at a ten-year auction since at least 2014, according to ECO, plus 514 million euros of 2052 bonds at 4.316 percent. Demand thinned, and it was the last bond auction of the year. The 2027 budget puts the interest bill at 8.22 billion euros.
Porto Carries the Airport Growth
Portugal's airports handled 7.9 million passengers in August, 2.0 percent more than a year earlier, and 51 million from January to August, INE says. Porto grew 7.1 percent over the eight months, against 0.8 percent at Lisbon and 4.0 percent at Faro. The UK remains the top country of origin and destination, and Spain has overtaken France in second place.
Pelvic Floor Rehab From Home
Since Tuesday, SNS doctors can prescribe Sword Health's remote pelvic floor rehabilitation for incontinence, pelvic pain and recovery after childbirth, under a state tele-rehabilitation convention. The company says it is free to patients. Secretary of State for Health Ana Povo said projections suggest up to one million women could benefit. Patients register on Sword's platform and are sent a certified device that measures pelvic floor muscle activity at home.
Electrical Waste Falls Short
Zero says Portugal collected and treated just 32 percent of its electrical and electronic waste in 2024, under half the 65 percent target. An Electrão survey found 17.8 percent of people have put small electricals in ordinary rubbish. Shops must take back an old appliance when you buy a new one, and a trade-in discount of up to 35 euros starts on 1 December.
Also published since yesterday's briefing
- Police and Tax Inspectors Search Banks and Law Firms Over Shelf Companies Allegedly Used to Dodge 66 Million Euros in Property Tax Read →
- Azores Civil Servants Tried a Four-Day Week for Six Months: Absences Fell 15 Percent and Nine in Ten Want to Keep It Read →
- Porto Geologists Identify a 298-Million-Year-Old Insect Nymph at the Pejão Coalfield, Unlike Any Known From Its Period Read →
- Portugal Picks Lufthansa to Buy Up to 49.9 Percent of TAP for 1,201 Million Euros, Keeping Five of Nine Board Seats for the State Read →
- A 9.2 Million Euro Tender for 780 Backup Generators for Parish Councils Drew No Bids, and the EU Money Went Elsewhere Read →
- Persistent Poverty in Portugal Climbs Back to Its 2021 Level of 9.5 Percent, and Over-65s Have the Highest Rate of Any Age Group Read →
- Odemira and Guarda Prisons No Longer Take Women, So Tires and Santa Cruz do Bispo Are the Mainland's Only Women's Jails Read →
- The Former Tupperware Factory in Constância Goes Unsold Again After a Lone Bid Two Thirds Below Its 10 Million Euro Price Read →
- Portugal Will Pay 50 Euros for Every Extra Male Wild Boar Shot and 70 for a Female, in a 500,000 Euro Pilot Across 65 Municipalities Read →
- Each Electricity Customer Lost About 10 Hours to the 2025 Blackout, Yet Payouts for Other Power Cuts Still Doubled to 2.1 Million Euros Read →
- SATA Invites All Five Remaining Bidders to Make Binding Offers for Azores Airlines by 9 December, and Still Will Not Say Who They Are Read →
- Cost of the Armed Forces Hospital's New Surgical Wing in Lisbon Climbs by 5.6 Million Euros to 20.27 Million, and the Spending Now Runs to 2029 Read →
