A barometer of the opinions of 785 foreign companies was recently published, offering their evaluation of, and the importance they give to the business climate in Spain during 2017, as well as their medium-term outlook.
The report was published jointly by ICEX-Invest in Spain, Multinationals for Spain Brand and the International Center for Competitiveness. It said foreign companies’ evaluation of the business climate has seen a further improvement compared to a year ago, showing that the upward trend begun in 2014 is consolidating.
The evaluation of the business climate in the country has improved to an average 2,92 out of 5. Worthy of note is the favourable outlook on the part of foreign investors, particularly with respect to investment, income, jobs and exports. They are clearly positive and an improvement on 2016.
According to the Investment Register of the Economy, Industry and Competitiveness Ministry, direct foreign investment of an industrial kind, technological services, grew 2% to 24.79 billion euros last year. So 2016 is the fourth consecutive year in which direct foreign investment to Spain has risen. During the first half of 2017, direct foreign investment in Spain reached 14.205 billion euros, up over 10% from a year earlier.
Strategic Objective
Referring to potential foreign investors, the authors of the report point out that “decisions about productive investments, manufacturing, are not seen as being affected by the current situation; it takes many years. These are decisions which are made after a careful analysis of the strengths and weaknesses.”
They highlighted that Spain now occupies the 28th position in Doing Business – the World Bank’s annual ranking of the economies where it’s easiest to do business – when it was in the number 62 spot in 2010.
