At this morning’s auction of six- and 18-month Treasury bills, interest increased to 1.041% and 1.603%, respectively. This operation took place on the same day that the Ministry of Finance announced that a troika delegation will arrive in Lisbon on Monday.

Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela, closed his official visit to Portugal late Tuesday with the signing of 14 bilateral agreements.

Tuesday, 17 June: “Diário Económico” reports that the Portuguese and Finnish prime ministers have sent the European Commission and the European Central Bank a joint letter, to attempt to solve the problem of bank financing in Europe, mainly affecting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Monday, 17 June: “Diário Económico” reports that in just three months, six state-owned enterprises handed over €545.6m to banks to cancel 38 high risk operations. According to the paper, all contracts, except for one made by rail infrastructure manager REFER, held potential losses until the end of their maturity.

Tuesday, 11 June: According to daily “Diário de Notícias”, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said that her country was very willing to expand its investment in Portugal, claiming that the economic relationship between the two countries should be taken to another level.

Hélder Postiga’s sole goal was crucial to keep qualifying hopes intact. Cristiano Ronaldo was a constant threat, but the winger failed to overcome Russian keeper Igor Akinfeev.

The coalition used their majority to push through a range of legislation dealing with everything from the restoration of one month’s holiday payments to state sector employees and pensions through to an extraordinary fiscal credit for new investment projects.

João Marques da Cruz, the EDP director with responsibility for liaising with CTG, made clear that Mozambique looked the better prospect among African countries with strong links to Portugal, given that its grid has cross-border interconnections.

If the board votes to approve the assessment by the so-called troika, as expected, that makes possible the disbursement of the eighth tranche of the bailout loan guarantees. The Eurogroup will discuss the results of the seventh review on 20 June.