Last year, Catalonia regained second place in the ranking of autonomous communities – behind Madrid – receiving foreign investment with 4,643.9 million euros, 18% more. In 2022, second place was occupied by the Basque Country due to an acquisition of a company in the regional community.
The investment achieved last year also means turning the page on the drop in investments that occurred after 2016 with the crisis of the flight of business headquarters outside of Catalonia. This departure caused certain investments that were made in companies with operational headquarters in Catalonia to be attributed to other territories where the companies located their headquarters, as is the case of Abertis. Last year’s investment is the largest since 2016 when it exceeded 8.3 billion.
In 2023, most of the investment went to commerce (40.1% of the total), to industry (23.1%) where metallurgy and metal products stand out. Financial services took 11.1% and the information and communication sector 5.8%.
The Business Department headed by Roger Torrent highlighted that investment in the industry grew by more than a third.
The main investors in 2023 are Germany (19.4%), the United Kingdom (18.2%), France (16.5%), the United States (12.3%) and South Korea (8.2%) .
The Community of Madrid is once again the region that leads in attracting funds from abroad with more than half of all resources.
When a long period is analyzed, it is found that a turning point occurred in Catalonia in 2017, coinciding with the referendum crisis that caused thousands of corporate offices to flee. In the period, 2000-2016, Catalonia concentrated 18.2% of all foreign investment that arrived in Spain. On the other hand, between 2017 and 2022 that percentage fell to 11.3%. Last year it exceeded 16% of the total. In Madrid the opposite happened and there was growth, from 53.9% to 68.2%.
