General Daily Briefing: Wednesday, 30 September 2026
Good morning. Here is your Wednesday briefing for 30 September 2026: the day's essential Portugal stories for residents, immigrants and anyone keeping an eye on the country, with two new practical guides at the top.
- Mortgages: loans reviewed in October face the biggest payment rise in three years, about 90 euros a month on a typical 12-month Euribor loan.
- Education: the OECD finds Portugal's teachers among the oldest and least happy with their pay, as 664 timetables still lack a teacher.
- Sport: the Rally de Portugal is off the 2027 World Rally Championship calendar, and tourism chiefs call it a disaster.
- Justice: Évora prosecutors charge 13 over alleged fake invoices for EU forestry aid and seek 16 million euros in forfeiture.
- Immigration: AIMA's construction training scheme for immigrants has filled only 44 of its 500 places.
- Tax: large multinationals must file their first global minimum tax return by the end of today.
Buying Savings Certificates (Certificados de Aforro) in Portugal
Who can buy Portuguese state savings certificates, how to open an account, the rate, the tax, cashing out early, and how heirs claim them.
Applying to a Public University in Portugal
How the national access contest for public universities works: who can apply, the exams, your six choices, the three phases, and enrolling on time.
Also Published Since Yesterday's Briefing
- Electric Cars and Toll Exemptions Are Draining Portugal's Road Money, and the Transport Regulator Floats Charging Lorries by the Kilometre
- Portugal's Tap Water Meets the Safety Standard in 98.84 Percent of Cases, and Only Two Mainland Councils Fall Below 95
- Judges and Prosecutors Will Get Their Own Economists, Psychologists and Engineers From Late November, Under a New Decree
- Assaults and Weapons in Portuguese Schools Reach a Five-Year High, the PSP's Safe School Report Shows, While Robberies Fall to a Low
- Rail Deaths in Portugal Drop to 14, but Nine Died at Level Crossings, the Most in Five Years
- Crioestaminal's Owner Wants to Buy Rival Cord Blood Bank Bebévida, and Portugal's Competition Authority Opens an In-Depth Probe
- Portugal Throws Away 161 Kilos of Food per Person a Year, and Its Households Waste More Than Any Others in the EU
- Almost One Birth in Twenty in Portugal Now Follows Fertility Treatment, but the Public Donor Bank Has a Four-Year Wait
- Host Families for Older and Disabled Adults Will Be Paid 356.24 Euros a Month for 2026, With the 2025 Rise Set Nine Months Late
- Portugal's 2025 State Accounts Break the Budget Law, the Court of Auditors Rules, and 12 Billion Euros of Unpaid Tax May Never Come In
- Just 946 People Have Signed Up for Portugal's Replacement for NHR, and Only One in Nine Is a Teacher or Researcher
- Portugal's Second University Round Fills 9,116 Seats, While Almost Half of the 4,069 Left Empty Sit at Five Polytechnics
- Only 58 Percent of Lisbon-Area Residents Are Happy With Their City, the Lowest in Portugal, as Noise, Dirt and Traffic Take Their Toll
The Biggest Mortgage Rise in Three Years
Variable-rate home loans due for review in October will see the sharpest payment increase since late 2023, after Euribor rates climbed through September. On a loan with 150,000 euros left over 30 years and a 1 percent spread, ECO calculates a rise of 14.07 percent on the 12-month index, to about 737 euros a month, and 3.76 percent on the three-month rate. The six-month Euribor, the most used in Portugal, hit 3.103 percent on Tuesday, its highest since September 2024. DECO advises families under strain to talk to their bank about renegotiating.
Portugal's Ageing Teachers
The OECD's Education at a Glance 2026 finds that 38 percent of Portugal's secondary teachers are 55 or older, and that only 13 percent of lower secondary teachers are satisfied with their salary, one of the lowest shares measured. Just 9 percent feel teaching is valued in society. Presenting the report, Education Minister Fernando Alexandre said schools still need teachers for 664 timetables, three in four of them in the Lisbon region, and that about 4,000 teachers retire each year.
No World Championship Rally in 2027
The Rally de Portugal will miss the 2027 World Rally Championship after the promoter reshuffled the calendar on the last day of planning, the organiser, the ACP, said. A date of 13 to 16 May had already been set, and the club is now talking to the promoter about a return in 2028. Tourism bodies for the centre and the north, where the rally runs, called the decision "a punch in the stomach" and "a disaster" and demanded to know what went wrong.
Charges Over EU Forestry Grants
Prosecutors in Évora have charged seven people and six companies with 44 counts of subsidy fraud and one of money laundering. They allege that between 2011 and 2015 the group used inflated and fictitious invoices to claim EU rural development grants for forestry projects, paid by the IFAP, in places such as Grândola, Ponte de Sor and Odemira. The prosecution asks for the forfeiture of just over 16 million euros; the defendants can still ask a judge to review the case before trial.
Few Takers for Construction Training
AIMA's Integrar para a Construção programme, which trains immigrants for building trades with four months of classes and a work placement, has enrolled only 44 people against 500 planned places, according to figures from the builders' association AICCOPN. Trainees receive a grant of up to 537 euros a month in the classroom phase. A second intake, which AIMA's calendar had set for September, is being prepared but has no date yet.
Minimum Tax Deadline Day
Multinational groups with revenue of at least 750 million euros must file their first global minimum tax information return, the Modelo 63, with the Tax Authority by the end of Wednesday, after the government moved the deadline back from 30 June. The regime, in force under Law 41/2024, is meant to ensure the largest groups pay at least 15 percent on their profits in each country. Small firms and the self-employed are not affected.
