Business 31 July 2026

BMW is cutting up to 8,000 jobs, and Germany has stopped being surprised

BMW's voluntary redundancy programme starts in October and runs to the end of 2027. Factories are spared, the cuts land in admin, and the target saving is €1bn a year from 2028.

BMW has confirmed a voluntary severance programme that could see up to 8,000 people leave the company, agreed with worker representatives. It opens in October and runs to the end of 2027. There are no compulsory redundancies and the factories are largely untouched: the cuts sit in administration and development.

Why is BMW cutting while it is still selling cars?

Because the maths of the next decade does not work. The carmaker expects to save around one billion euros a year from 2028, and it needs that money to fund the electric transition while defending share that Chinese manufacturers are taking from it, above all inside China itself. Trimming structure now is the least painful way to free up margin before the squeeze tightens.

What makes this heavy is not BMW on its own. It is the pattern. Volkswagen has signalled it wants to shed up to 100,000 roles globally, and Porsche announced a further 5,000 cuts at Zuffenhausen and the Weissach development centre, in exchange for a job guarantee to 2035 and €2.1bn of investment. Three carmakers, three strategies, one diagnosis.

What does this have to do with Portugal?

More than it looks. Germany is the main destination for Portuguese car components, and the sector employs tens of thousands of people across Palmela, Vouzela, Leiria and Braga. When German carmakers shrink structures and push platforms back, orders to Iberian plants adjust a few months later — they do not vanish, but the rhythm and the price change.

None of this is dramatic for anyone here yet: these are voluntary exits spread across 15 months, not production lines closing. It is one more sign that Europe’s car industry is tidying its house, and it is worth holding in mind alongside forecasts that the Portuguese economy slows this year and barely recovers in 2027. The programme and the numbers are set out on the BMW Group site.

By Beatriz Mota

Image: Diego Delso / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Business 30 July 2026

EDP made 732 million euros in six months, with renewables and grids doing the pulling

EDP closed the first half of 2026 with 732 million euros in profit, up 3% on last year, as recurring EBITDA rose 5% to 2.73 billion.

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Business 30 July 2026

Portugal's economy looks to have grown again in the second quarter after a flat start to the year

The CIP/ISEG barometer points to 0.4% quarter-on-quarter growth in Portugal in the second quarter of 2026, around 2% year-on-year, with business confidence improving.

Portugal's economy is estimated to have grown 0.4% in the second quarter compared with the previous three months, roughly 2% year-on-year. That is the reading from the joint CIP and ISEG barometer published this week, and it lands ahead of the official number from the national statistics office — but it sets the tone. Zero point four percent quarter-on-quarter, which sounds modest until you remember where it starts from. The first quarter came in flat —…

Business 30 July 2026

Markets tracker: gold, the Fed, oil and stocks

Our running tracker of the markets that move savings in Portugal — gold, Fed and ECB decisions, oil and stocks. Updated whenever there is news.

This is our running tracker of the markets that move savings in Portugal. Instead of a fresh article for every swing, we update this page whenever something matters: gold, Federal Reserve and European Central Bank decisions, oil and the main stock indices. For the background on the Portuguese economy, see our mid-year review. Official data is at the Bank of Portugal.

Business 29 July 2026

TAP's final bids land today, and only Air France-KLM and Lufthansa are still in the race

The deadline for binding bids for 49.9% of TAP falls on 29 July. Two bidders remain, Parpública spends August on the analysis, and the government decides in early September.

Today is the day TAP's privatisation stops being talk and turns into signed paper. Wednesday is the deadline for binding bids for the 49.9% stake the Portuguese state has decided to sell, and only two names are left on the table: Air France-KLM and Lufthansa. Binding means what it sounds like. These are no longer intentions or scenarios — they are a price and a commitment the bidder is stuck with. Not today. Once the bids are in, Parpública has August to…

Business 28 July 2026

Portugal's economy slows this year and 2027 barely lifts it, warns the Competitiveness Forum

The Forum for Competitiveness sees Portuguese GDP growing 1.7% to 1.9% in 2026 and 1.8% to 2% in 2027, blaming structural weakness rather than the cycle.

Portugal's economy will grow less this year than it did last year, and next year brings no comeback either. That is the picture from the Forum for Competitiveness, and the uncomfortable part is not this year's number. It is next year's. Between 1.7% and 1.9%, after 1.9% in 2025. A modest tap on the brakes. The trouble is 2027: the forecast lands at 1.8% to 2%, which is to say almost exactly the same. This is not one weak year followed by a rebound. It is…

Business 28 July 2026

Galp made 812 million euros by June and is raising the dividend on top

Galp's first-half 2026 profit rose 44% to 812 million euros on higher Brazilian output and a Brent price 28% dearer. The dividend climbs to 70 cents a share.

Some half-years a company works hard and earns little. For Galp, this was not one of them. 812 million euros, up 44% on the same period last year. The explanation stands on two legs. The first is Brazilian production, which grew 17%. The second is price: Brent gained 28% over a half-year in which the Middle East conflict never let the market settle, the same move that pushed the barrel above 100 dollars and made petrol dearer at the pump.

Business 26 July 2026

Euro banknotes are getting their first redesign since 2002, and the ECB wants your vote

The ECB unveiled 12 shortlisted designs for the next generation of euro banknotes across two competing themes. The public survey runs to 21 September, with a final decision due by the end of 2026.

The notes in your wallet are being replaced, and for the first time since 2002 the artwork actually changes. On 23 July, Christine Lagarde presented the 12 shortlisted designs for the next generation of euro banknotes — two for each denomination from 5 to 200 — and opened a public survey where anyone can say which side they are on. It runs until 21 September. One is European Culture, swapping the current notes' generic bridges and windows for faces that…

Bar chart showing billion-dollar rounds taking 60% of global venture funding in 2026

Business 25 July 2026

Six in every ten venture dollars went into giant rounds this year

Around 60% of global startup funding in 2026 went to rounds of $1 billion or more, roughly $320 billion in total. It explains a lot about the mood among founders.

Roughly 60% of all startup funding worldwide this year went into rounds of $1 billion or more. Those giant deals soaked up close to $320 billion. That single statistic explains a contradiction currently annoying half the industry. Because the totals lie. Venture investment can look historically strong on a chart while plenty of seed and Series A founders describe a brutal fundraising environment. Both things are true simultaneously. It takes only a…

Business 25 July 2026

Intel was losing the AI race and is somehow making money from it anyway

Intel beat expectations, raised its outlook and lifted planned 2026 capital spending from $18bn to $20bn. It did not sell a single GPU to get there.

For two years the story told about Intel never changed: the company that showed up late to artificial intelligence and watched Nvidia take the lot. Its latest results force a correction to at least half that sentence. Quarterly results ahead of expectations, its fastest revenue growth in years, and third-quarter guidance above Wall Street estimates. The company also raised planned 2026 capital spending from $18 billion to $20 billion to meet demand for…

Business 25 July 2026

Google spent so much on data centres that its free cash flow went negative

Alphabet closed the second quarter with free cash flow of minus 5.9 billion dollars after doubling infrastructure spending, then raised its guidance for the rest of the year.

Alphabet had an excellent quarter and the market punished it anyway. Revenue rose 24%, cloud grew 82% — numbers most companies on earth would take without blinking — and the shares still fell. One line is to blame: capital spending. Because the company spent more building infrastructure than the business threw off. In the second quarter, purchases of property and equipment doubled year on year to 44.9 billion dollars, against 39.1 billion dollars of cash…

Chart of renewable electricity as a share of final consumption: Austria 90.8%, Sweden 89.2%, Denmark 77.7% and Portugal 65.6%

Business 25 July 2026

Portugal ranks fourth in the EU for renewable electricity, and Austria is still miles ahead

Renewables make up 65.6% of Portugal's final electricity consumption, behind Austria, Sweden and Denmark, Eurostat says. What it means for your bill.

Portugal has the fourth-largest share of renewable electricity in final consumption anywhere in the European Union: 65.6%, according to figures released by Eurostat. Only Austria on 90.8%, Sweden on 89.2% and Denmark on 77.7% sit above it. It means that of every ten units of electricity consumed in the country, close to seven came from wind, water, sun or biomass. This is a final-consumption figure, so imports and exports are already baked in — which is…

Fifty and one hundred euro notes fanned out over bank cards

Business 25 July 2026

Should Portugal's minimum wage jump to €1,050 now? Unions think so

Portugal's CGTP union is again demanding a minimum wage of €1,050 immediately, while the signed deal only sets €970 for 2027 and employers say there is no room.

The CGTP does not want to wait for 2027. Portugal's largest union confederation this week renewed its demand that the national minimum wage rise straight to €1,050 — well above the €970 already pencilled in for next year — and the ask has reopened a fight that will simmer all summer. Here is where the numbers stand today. The 2024 incomes agreement, signed by the government, the UGT union and the employers' confederations, sets the minimum to climb €50 in…

Business 24 July 2026

Foreign investment hit a record in Portugal — and Montenegro says the country has never been friendlier to investors

Portugal closed 2025 with a record in foreign investment contracted through AICEP. The prime minister touts stability, but the Bank of Portugal sees more modest growth through 2027.

Portugal is pulling in more money from abroad than it ever has. In 2025, foreign investment contracted through AICEP — the agency that courts investment for the country — hit a record, and the prime minister was keen to underline it this week, at a ground-breaking ceremony in Figueira da Foz. Luís Montenegro boiled the message down to one line: Portugal is now "friendlier to investment." His argument is stability — political, economic and financial — as…

Business 24 July 2026

Catalyxx picks Sines for its first renewable-chemicals plant — €120 million, work starting this year

Spain's Catalyxx will invest €120 million in a renewable-chemicals plant in Sines, Portugal, with construction due to start in the last quarter of 2026 and the project ranked as a national interest project.

Sines is once again the address of choice for anyone looking to build heavy industry in Portugal — and this time the bet is a green one. Spain's Catalyxx says it will put up its first commercial renewable-chemicals plant there, with a cheque to match. It's €120 million, through Catalyxx Ibérica, in a project that blends private capital with public support — including a €20 million contribution from the European Circular Bio-based Europe partnership.…