The heavyweight committee members of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association have met in London and decided to postpone until February any decision about the status of the Novo Banco bonds controversially transferred back to BES.

Today's meeting was attended by representatives of Bank of America, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citibank, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Nomura.

VAT on food served in restaurants will reduce from the current 23%, to 13% in July this year in a welcome agreement between the government and its left wing allies. The easing of VAT does not cover drinks served in restaurants.

The delayed starting date for the new rate means the estimated loss of VAT revenue to the treasury will fall from €350 million to €175 million in this financial year.

The Minister for Planning and Infrastructure, Pedro Marques, has said that the renegotiation of the public-private partnerships for Portugal’s roads will not bring anywhere near the level of savings claimed by the previous government.

"We are following the negotiations of these PPP contracts. Negotiations are not yet complete, but we can draw some conclusions that there is a big difference between what was touted by the previous government, and the reality," said the new minister.

Italy has been known to lash out at foreign companies which imitate any of its delicacies, but is no stranger to scandals in its own production.

Concern has been raised about the making of mozzarella cheese after police seized 3.5 tonnes of poorly preserved curd from a manufacturer in the southern region of Puglia.

We now have answers, of a sort, to the pending questions over the Algarve’s railway line as the Minister of Equipment and Infrastructure, Pedro Marques, faced Social Democrat MP Cristóvão Norte at an parliamentary meeting for infrastructure investment.

Marques guaranteed that the electrification project for the remainder of the Algarve railway line is to go ahead.

Apple plans to open a product development unit in Naples which Italian PM Matteo Renzi said “will bring about 600 jobs”.

Naples is characterised by high levels of unemployment and poverty.

Portugal’s much trumpeted Golden Visa programme is close to a standstill as 4,000 non-EC investors sit and wait for news of their applications.

At the current rate of progress, the backlog will take five years to clear after the Operation Labyrinth investigation into corruption and money laundering saw 11 people arrested and stricter rules put in place. 

The Minister for Internal Administration, Miguel Macedo, stepped down while denying any wrongdoing. He later was arrested.

Charles Every, thought to be the Algarve’s oldest foreign resident, celebrated his 100th birthday yesterday, Wednesday, 20 January.

It was cause for a double and nearly a triple celebration. Charles’s granddaughter, Kelly, who lives in England, was also born on January 20. She gave birth to her first baby, a girl, last week.