After three consecutive months in deficit, Portugal's public accounts returned to surpluses in July, with a positive balance of 282 million euros. Social Security also recorded a surplus of 4.42 billion euros in July, 1.2 billion more than in the same month of the previous year. This news comes in a week when the Recovery and Resilience Plan was declared fully completed by the Minister of Economy, Manuel Castro Almeida, with execution at 100% of the subsidies allocated to Portugal, estimated at 16.325 billion euros.
On the international stage, the oil agreement between Venezuela and the United States stands out, which reportedly gave Donald Trump control over approximately 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil reserves, nine months after the capture of former President Nicolás Maduro. During the same week, Iceland rejected in a referendum the reopening of EU accession negotiations, and the US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz against Iran completed six months, completely halting Iranian oil exports and contributing to new fuel price increases.
In Portugal, the TVDE sector was marked by new legislation that allows taxis to register to operate through electronic platforms, which drew criticism from both industry associations and the Portuguese Association of Transporters in Undisguised Automobiles, which considered the sector "highly wronged" under platform dominance.
On the political front, André Ventura, president of Chega, confirmed that he will present a censure motion against the AD government, maintaining his intention to create a parliamentary inquiry committee to scrutinize Luís Neves's conduct as national director of the Judicial Police. The motion will be debated on September 8. This week, the Portuguese government also summoned the Russian ambassador in Lisbon to demand explanations about hybrid attacks affecting Leipzig airport in Germany.
