The Diplomat
The vast majority of foreign companies established in Spain maintain positive forecasts in terms of investments, turnover, employment and volume of exports for 2025.
This is reflected in the seventeenth edition of the Barometer of the Business Climate in Spain from the Perspective of the Foreign Investor, a joint publication by ICEX-Invest in Spain, Multinationals with Spain and the International Center for Competitiveness (ICC) of the IESE, which collects the assessment and importance that more than 700 companies with foreign capital give to the business climate in Spain, including their perceptions in 2024 and their forecasts for 2025.
According to the study, the percentage of companies that expect to increase or maintain their turnover … Investments, employment and exports will improve this year by twelve, three, seven and six percent, respectively.
In addition, 89 percent of the companies established in our country expect to increase or maintain their investments during 2025, despite the complex international context, while the percentage of those who say they will increase their investments rises, reaching 36 percent of the companies surveyed.
In addition, an improvement in the turnover prospects for 2025 is also noted, and the companies that expect to maintain or increase their turnover during this year grow by up to 87 percent compared to the 78 percent recorded the previous year.
Foreign companies also have great potential in their foreign sales and 74 percent of the companies surveyed export to third markets from Spain. Their estimates confirm this same positive trend and 92 percent of the companies that export from Spain expect their sales to third countries to grow or remain the same this year.
As regards their employment estimates, they remain slightly above those of 2024, since 92 percent of the investment firms in our country foresee that their workforce will increase or remain the same as until now in 2025, which represents an increase of seven points compared to these same estimates for 2024.
“In general, in this Barometer, companies confirm that they have a positive assessment of the business climate in which they developed their activity in Spain in 2024, although they were influenced by the uncertainty of the economic situation and international politics,” the report highlights. “Thus, the business climate in Spain easily passes the assessment it receives from the directors of companies with foreign capital,” it adds.
The areas that have received the best assessment from foreign investors in Spain have been those related to infrastructure, followed by the size of the market and human capital, of which they value the availability of qualified labor and its capacity for learning. As for the reasons for investing in Spain, the geographic location, the size of the local market and access to other markets were particularly valued.
Regarding the areas with some room for improvement, respondents mention aspects related to taxation and financing, as well as others related to the regulatory environment, such as the reduction of bureaucratic burdens, and costs, mainly those of electricity, although the latter have improved compared to the 2023 Barometer.
During the presentation of the Barometer, which took place this Tuesday at the ICEX headquarters, the State Secretary for Trade, Amparo López Senovilla, stated that “Spain has experienced an outstanding last decade in terms of receiving foreign direct investment and underlined the “excellent performance” that foreign investments are demonstrating in greenfield projects (foreign direct investments from scratch) in Spain, the most interesting from an economic point of view, to the extent that they involve the construction of new facilities and the hiring of employees.
In the first eleven months of 2024, Spain was the fifth largest recipient of greenfield projects in the world, reaching a total of 682, which have meant almost 33 billion euros of investment for our country and the creation of more than 60,000 jobs, according to FDI Markets, the database of these projects of the Financial Times Group.
“Greater integration in the global economy through trade and investment contributes to boosting the competitiveness of our companies, the well-being and prosperity of our citizens and economic growth,” added López Senovilla.
