Business 16 July 2026

Fuel prices in Portugal rise fast and fall slowly — the government now wants answers, and may cap margins

Portugal's energy minister has given regulator ERSE 20 working days to explain how fuel prices are formed, and for the first time admits capping profit margins if serious market distortions show up.

Every driver in Portugal has asked it at the pump: why does a litre of fuel jump the moment oil rises, yet take weeks to ease when oil falls? Now the government is asking the same question — in writing, with a deadline, and with an unprecedented threat attached.

In a letter to the president of energy regulator ERSE, Pedro Verdelho, environment and energy minister Maria da Graça Carvalho gave the watchdog 20 working days to explain how fuel prices are formed in Portugal. And she went further: if serious market distortions are found, the government admits — for the first time — it could temporarily cap maximum profit margins.

What does ERSE have to deliver?

A study comparing, over at least two years, international oil quotations, the reference Efficient Price and what drivers actually pay at the pump — measuring how fast, and how symmetrically, rises and falls are passed on to consumers. Any signs of anti-competitive behaviour go straight to the Competition Authority. The regulator’s framework is on ERSE’s official site.

Will Portugal actually fix fuel prices?

Not yet — this is a conditional threat, not a decision. But putting it on the table changes the tone of the conversation with fuel retailers. The timing is no accident: diesel and petrol have risen for a second straight week in July, and energy remains one of the heaviest lines in household budgets — as our markets tracker keeps showing.

Twenty working days takes us to mid-August. Keep your fuel receipts — the answer should be worth reading.

By Beatriz Mota

Image: Joehawkins / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Business 16 July 2026

Coca-Cola halted Fairlife production in the US — ransomware reached the factory floor

Coca-Cola temporarily suspended production at its Fairlife dairy brand in the United States after a ransomware attack hit systems connected to production. Canadian operations were not affected.

Not a breakdown, not a strike: a cyberattack stopped the lines. Coca-Cola told US regulators on Thursday that Fairlife, its milk and protein-drinks brand, has temporarily suspended production in the United States after ransomware reached company systems — including ones tied to production. According to the filing submitted to the SEC, Fairlife identified unauthorised third-party access to a portion of its systems as part of a ransomware event. The…

Business 16 July 2026

Trade Republic now issues Portuguese IBANs — and pays 3% to rattle the banks

Trade Republic has opened a Portuguese branch: clients get a PT50 IBAN and 3% annual interest on uninvested cash. MB Way integration is under study.

Trade Republic is everywhere in Portugal's financial news this Thursday, and for good reason. The German digital bank has officially opened a Portuguese branch, which means its Portuguese clients trade in their German IBAN for a national one starting with PT50 — the small detail that makes all the difference when your employer or landlord side-eyes a foreign account number. Alongside the new plates, the offer that made traditional banks wince stays put:…

Business 16 July 2026

Glovo Portugal is getting a new owner — sold to a US fund as part of the Uber-Delivery Hero deal

Glovo's Portugal operation is one of 14 businesses Delivery Hero is selling to SSW Partners for about 1.4 billion euros, as Uber moves to buy the German delivery giant for 12.9 billion.

The yellow backpack weaving through Portuguese streets is getting new bosses. Glovo's Portugal operation has been bundled into a package of 14 businesses that Delivery Hero, the brand's owner, is selling to US fund SSW Partners — a side piece, but a meaningful one, in the chess game that sees Uber buying the German delivery giant. SSW Partners, a New York investment fund, which will pay roughly 1.4 billion euros for operations in 14 markets — among them…

Business 16 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 15 July 2026

Portugal's airports handled 7.1 million passengers in May and broke the record again

Portuguese airports handled 7.1 million passengers in May 2026, up 2.9% year-on-year and an all-time high, according to INE. Lisbon alone accounts for half the country's traffic.

Seven point one million people went through Portugal's airports in May. In one month. In a month that isn't even peak season. It is an all-time high, up 2.9% on last May, and it confirms what anyone who has tried to clear security at Lisbon at seven in the morning already suspected: this is not slowing down. 7.1 million, counting departures, arrivals and direct transits, across 23,800 commercial landings, plus 22,100 tonnes of cargo and mail. An average…

Business 15 July 2026

Portugal's economy sped up in the second quarter, says the finance minister. The recovery-fund bill is what slows everything else

Miranda Sarmento told parliament that consumption, investment and exports all accelerated in Portugal's second quarter of 2026. The catch: recovery-plan loans are eating the budget headroom.

If you were braced for bad economic news, Wednesday did not deliver any. Miranda Sarmento went to parliament and said the second-quarter data is frankly positive, with consumption, investment and exports all picking up speed. The statistics office's flash estimate only lands at the end of the month, so this is still a promise rather than a fact — but it is the Government's own read, and those tend to be cautious when they can afford to be. The picture the…

Business 15 July 2026

Fertiliser prices went through the roof, so Brussels just handed Portugal €162 million

The EU Council is letting Portugal move up to €162.2 million into direct payments for farmers squeezed by fertiliser costs. Now Lisbon has until the end of August to work out what to do with it.

Portugal has just won €162.2 million of room to put money straight into farmers' pockets. It isn't new money falling from the sky — it's permission to move what already exists, and in Brussels that is usually worth nearly as much. The Council of the European Union approved a regulation letting member states pull funds from other parts of their CAP strategic plan, such as rural development, and redirect them into the direct payments that land in producers'…

Business 12 July 2026

Meta plans to double computing capacity to 14 gigawatts by 2027

An internal memo reveals Meta plans to double its AI computing power by 2027, with record spending and a new gigawatt-scale data centre in Canada.

Meta is preparing the biggest infrastructure expansion in its history: according to an internal memo that surfaced this week, the company plans to double its total computing capacity to 14 gigawatts by 2027, with 7 gigawatts coming online this year alone. For perspective, one gigawatt is roughly the output of a nuclear power plant — and Meta wants fourteen of them just to train and serve AI models. This year's outlay is running at the very top of the…

Business 12 July 2026

Banking jobs in Portugal hit highest level since BES collapse: 782 new posts in a year

Employment in Portuguese banking reached its highest level since the 2014 BES collapse, with 782 net jobs added in a year — even as branches keep closing.

After a decade of shrinking, Portuguese banking is hiring again in earnest: over the past year the sector added 782 jobs in net terms, lifting employment to its highest level since the collapse of BES in 2014. It is a remarkable turn of the cycle for an industry that spent years as a byword for restructuring and redundancy packages. Not for the counters — for the technology. Banks are beefing up digital, data and cybersecurity teams, and responding to the…

Business 11 July 2026

SK Hynix jumps 13% in Nasdaq debut after biggest foreign IPO in US history

SK Hynix closed up 13% on its Nasdaq debut after raising $26.5 billion — the largest US listing ever by a foreign company, beating Alibaba's 2014 record.

Investor appetite for anything touching artificial intelligence has a new record to show for itself. South Korea's SK Hynix, maker of the memory that feeds Nvidia's AI chips, debuted on the Nasdaq with a 13% jump to $168.01, after an offering that raised $26.5 billion. Because it is the largest-ever US IPO by a foreign company, beating the record Alibaba had held since 2014 ($25 billion). Demand ran seven times above supply, the depositary receipts were…

Business 11 July 2026

Portugal exports up 5.1% in May, but the year's trade deficit keeps widening

Portuguese goods exports rose 5.1% in May, says the INE, while imports fell 1.6%. Year to date, though, the trade deficit widened by 1.732 billion euros to 14.383 billion.

Portuguese goods exports grew 5.1% in May compared with the same month of 2025 — the best reading in almost two years — while imports fell 1.6%, according to international trade data released by the INE statistics office. A month to frame on the wall, then. The trouble is the full-year picture, which tells a less cheerful story. In the January-to-May period, exports slipped 0.2% while imports rose 3.5% year on year. The result: the goods trade deficit…

Business 10 July 2026

Delta rescues Mocoffee: 3 million euros to save Azambuja capsule factory

The Nabeiro group injects 3 million euros into Mocoffee, becomes sole shareholder and pays creditors 6 million. The plan writes off 64% of 23.4 million in debt.

Delta is taking over Mocoffee — and with it a factory in Azambuja capable of turning out 350 million coffee capsules a year. The recovery plan for the manufacturer, which reached 2026 on the edge of insolvency with 23.4 million euros in debt, rests on a 3-million-euro injection from the Nabeiro group, which becomes sole shareholder. About 36% of what they are owed: the plan negotiated under Portugal's special revitalisation process (PER) writes off 64.4%…

Business 10 July 2026

European Tech Champions Initiative: Portugal joins EIB fund aiming to mobilise 80 billion euros

Portugal has joined the EIB's European Tech Champions Initiative, which aims to raise 15 billion euros and mobilise up to 80 billion for 1,500 European scale-ups.

Portugal will put its own money into the new phase of the European Tech Champions Initiative, the investment alliance led by the European Investment Bank that aims to mobilise up to 80 billion euros for 1,500 European tech companies in their scale-up phase. The announcement came this Friday from finance minister Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, on the sidelines of the Ecofin meeting in Brussels. Nobody knows yet — and that is the honest answer. All 27 member…

ISTSat-1, Portugal's first university satellite

Business 10 July 2026

Portugal's space sector is worth €1.2 billion — and every euro generates another €1.17

Portugal's space sector added €1.2 billion to GDP between 2019 and 2024, according to the Novaspace study for the Portuguese Space Agency.

Space is now serious business in Portugal: between 2019 and 2024, space activities contributed €1.2 billion directly to the country's GDP. The figure comes from the socioeconomic study Novaspace produced for the Portuguese Space Agency — the most complete portrait of the sector to date — and it arrives with a multiplier that explains the excitement: for every euro space adds directly to the economy, another €1.17 is generated through supply chains and…