One of the latest AIP Competitiveness Reports shows that levels of productivity per person employed in Portugal correspond to 70.8% of the EU average – ranking ahead only of Poland. This record has been looked at by several economists who believe low productivity levels in Portugal are due to factors such as work organization, lack of training and technology. Rui Madaleno, economics director at Associação Industrial Portuguesa (AIP), the Portuguese Industrial Association says:”Portugal is not a country where people work fewer hours than elsewhere, the question is more about the value that they create while at work”. He says improving productivity implies changes to product offered, in turn requiring investment, changes to workplace organisation, to bureaucracy, attitudes and professional qualifications.  José Eduardo Carvalho chief researcher at Observatório da Produtividade das Grandes Empresas do Instituto Lusíada de Investigação e Desenvolvimento says: “There are sectors of low productivity and others that count among the best in the EU. In a study on performance among 125 of the top Portuguese companies between 2003–2005 only three systematically reported positive levels of competitiveness as well as positive rates of economic and technological productivity”, he added. José Eduardo Carvalho said BoP-Bank of Portugal data indicated that productivity has risen virtually every year in recent years although at variable rates which aren’t always below the trend in the average cost of labour, while productivity of capital and technological and economic intensity has been declining. The solution is to improve knowledge and dissemination of technology and instruments required to enable each member of the labour force to obtain better productivity,” he said.

Portugal’s Tourism Board has approved €20 million worth of funding for three new hotels in the Serra da Estrela region, Portugal’s only ski resort. The board’s Jorge Patrão said work on the new hotels is due to get under way this year. They will be built in the Fornos de Algodres and Penamacor municipalities, which for the first time ever will be served by hotels, and at Gouveia. The  4-star Terras Serranas hotel will be located at Fornos de Algodres at a cost of € 8.5 million and offer 108 rooms. Jorge Patrão said “investors hope to find thermal spa waters in the region and build a second complex to include a spa.” At Penamacor the 3-star, € 6.3 million Quinta do Cafalado hotel will offer 52 rooms. A Martep/Penamacor municipality consortium will build and operate the hotel which will help meet a shortage of accommodation for tourism activities focused on hunting and nature in the Reserva Natural da Serra da Malcata, or Malcata nature reserve. The €4.3 million, 4-star Lótus charm hotel will be developed at Gouveia.

ALF - Associação Portuguesa de Leasing, Factoring e Renting the Portuguese association for leasing factoring and renting says credits held under factoring arrangements totalled €17.2 billion or 13.5% of GDP. This was split into three types of factoring – domestic (€11.5 billion) international (€1.1  billion) and confirming arrangements (€4.6 billion) compared to the same period in 2009. Confirming – or payment by a factor of a customer bill to suppliers – remains the core of the business and showed strongest growth. Although earnings on leasing and renting were down, both have been widely used by domestic companies seeking to secure profitability for their businesses. ALF said this is particularly so in real estate and motor vehicle sectors. ALF said the total amount of sector business was € 2.2 billion (49,621 new contracts) while fixed asset leasing was €1.2  billion (2954 new contracts). In renting 21,101 vehicle contracts were signed worth €409.2 million.