Neither the invasion of Ukraine nor the high energy prices prevented Spanish companies from coming out of the lethargy of the pandemic in 2022 and investing 29,000 million euros abroad, which represents not only an increase of 33% compared to the year but also the highest figure to date, according to the association of industrial companies Amec.
This volume also responds to high inflation, which forces more financial effort to be devoted to obtain the same result and which became one of the most distorting factors in business activity last year.
The data of the strong foreign investment explains, together with the greater number of establishments of Spanish companies outside the country, the marked increase in 2022 in the International Solidity Index (ISI) that Amec prepares every year. It has stood at 7.36 points out of a total of ten, after registering an increase of 7.45%.
“The recovery of the Spanish economy has once again been supported by the foreign sector,” says Joan Tristany, general director of the association, who has been carrying out this exercise since 2014, but who has references in this regard that date back to 2010. In recent years, the international indicator of Spanish companies has risen by 18.7%, or 23% if 2010 is taken as the starting point. At that time, the note was 5.95.
However, it is not all good news. Last year there were some setbacks in the export base of the companies and in other aspects such as the increase in barriers to foreign activity, motivated in part by the commercial vetoes established by Algeria. In the investment chapter, the countries to which most efforts were allocated were the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States.
The war and its effects have had “a relative impact on exports,” says Tristany. “The effects have more to do with the increase in energy prices because neither Ukraine nor Russia had very important relations.” There has also been another distorting element, which has to do with the prolongation of the pandemic in China and supply problems.
Last year, public investment aimed at supporting the activity of Spanish companies abroad also declined. Amec takes 2008 as a reference, in which the General State Budget (PGE) dedicated a figure of 240 million euros to this effort, which it considers optimal. On the other hand, in 2022 it barely remained at 83 million euros.
The association has also presented a barometer prepared in February of this year about the perception of industrial companies of Next Generation funds. Most of them, 60%, say they have not had access to this type of instrument, while 7% cannot say if the support received through different organizations really comes from these European funds.