Please find below a selection of news and opinion articles relating to the mortgage, property and economic markets of Portugal, from January 2009

LISBON, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates reiterated on Friday his government's stance that no banks will be allowed to fail, in order to underpin confidence in the country's financial system.
"When this confidence is lost, banks cannot borrow funds (abroad) for the short term in order to lend here for medium and long-term," Socrates told a business conference.
"We won't let a single bank fail ... The top priority is to stabilize the financial system," Socrates said, rejecting criticism that his Socialist government was rescuing bankers and stockholders in banks at the expense of taxpayers.
Since the global financial crisis hit major U.S. and European banks in October, the Portuguese government has reacted by offering state guarantees of up to 20 billion euros on bank loans and 4 billion euros in capital for local banks.
Portugal's top banks like Millennium BCP (BCP.LS), Banco Espirito Santo (BES.LS) and Banco BPI (BBPI.LS), have weathered the crisis relatively well as they held no toxic U.S. subprime assets and mostly stuck to conservative lending practices.
Last month, the government nationalized small private bank BPN, whose financial problems preceded the current global financial crisis but were exacerbated by the crunch.
Earlier this month, a group of leading Portuguese banks extended a loan of 450 million euros to small investment bank Banco Privado Portugues, which is struggling with liquidity problems, after the government said it would guarantee the loan.
The Bank of Portugal, which coordinated the rescue effort, appointed four provisional administrators to restructure BPP

Portugal tells its banks: lend or else
Dec 17, 2008

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Portugal's finance minister has warned his country's banks he may take away credit guarantees worth euro20 billion ($28 billion) if they don't resume normal lending.
The government provided the guarantee last month but business associations have complained the credit tap is still dry.
Finance Minister Fernando Teixeira dos Santos reminded bankers the guarantee came with a proviso that they help out struggling businesses.
Teixeira dos Santos added in his comments late Tuesday that banks won't survive the crisis if they stop making money from lending.

Northern Portugal Good for investment

A number of upmarket developments in the northern area of Portugal are drawing investors to the region.
Homes Worldwide reports that many new properties around Porto are attracting interest from buyers, despite the fact that southern regions of the country such as the Algarve have traditionally been the focus of property investment in Portugal.
Meanwhile, a separate report from the website has highlighted Portugal's growing market for "equestrian tourism", which is emerging as a major attraction to rival golf in the country's tourism industry.
Miguel Catalao, an expert on horse riding holidays in Portugal, recently explained the economic benefits of equestrian tourism to Essential Lisboa magazine.
"Anyone coming to Portugal to play golf spends on average 150 euros a day. In the equestrian sector, this spending shoots up to around 250 euros when you consider all the expenses inherent to horse riding," he said.
Portugal recently submitted a joint bid with neighbouring country Spain to host the World Cup in 2018. 

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