Barometer of the business climate in Spain: Results 2018 (Doing Business in Spain)
ICEX-Invest in Spain, IESE International Center for Competitiveness and Multinationals for the Spain brand have just published the Barometer of the business climate in Spain.
The Barometer is now in its ninth edition, and has now become a reference publication in Spain. The 2018 edition features an assessment by 700 foreign companies of the importance of the business climate in Spain in 2018, and also provides their forecasts for the next two years.
The Barometer it identifies –in the medium term– both the strengths that must be maintained and the main spheres of action where greater efforts should be concentrated.
The overall assessment of the 2018 Barometer about Business Climate in Spain has improved compared to the previous year, confirming the upward trend that began in 2014 and continued in 2015 thanks to the economic recovery and Spain’s emergence from the crisis.
Main conclusions
These are some of the main conclusions includes in the Barometer:
– The most important area for investors in the present edition, as in previous years, was Human Capital followed by Market Size. Other significant areas are Infrastructures, the Labor Market and Quality of Life.
– The areas given the best ratings by investors are those related with Infrastructures (a clear strength in Spain), and Market Size, followed by Quality of Life and Human Capital. It is encouraging that these are once again this year among the most important areas for investors.
– The aspects that continue to be least highly rated include those relating to Finance, Innovation and Taxation, although the lowest rated area in the previous edition was Taxation while in 2018 it is Finance.
– The investors signal that measures are necessary in regard to Costs (such as the costs of electricity, telephone and Internet, and other supplies) and the Regulatory Environment (including a reduction in the burden of bureaucracy).
The Human Capital aspects are also considered essential and are highly rated as a whole, although there is room for improvement in several areas such as language skills and accepting responsibilities and targets. The scores for the areas of Quality of Life and Infrastructures are very similar and generally meet investors’ expectations.
– The forecasts for investment, sales, generation of employment and the volume of exports for 2018 and 2019 are clearly positive and have improved since 2017
– The general assessment of foreign investors with regard to the forecasts for 2018 and 2019 is very positive.
Foreign companies in Spain foresee a highly favorable outlook for investment in the coming year. 93% of the companies surveyed expect to increase or maintain their investments in Spain in 2018.
– Employment prospects are also fairly positive and have improved, with the percentage of companies planning to increase or maintain their workforce in Spain rising to 91% in 2018, up from the 89% who say they did so in 2017.
– The sales prospects in Spain for 2018 are also excellent, with 91% of the companies surveyed expecting to increase or maintain their turnover, compared to 85% in 2017.
– Finally, in terms of the volume of exports, 74% of the foreign companies surveyed export to third markets from Europe. Only 4% of companies plan to reduce their exports in 2018.
Click here to access the full Barometer. And remeber if you are thinking about starting up a business in Spain, don´t hesitate to contact to our team of experts.
