Catalonia attracts €3.8bn in foreign investment in 2022 according to Spanish government

Catalonia attracted €3.88bn in foreign investment in 2022 according to figures made public by Spain's industry, commerce, and tourism ministry on Tuesday morning. 

This is a 25.6% increase on 2021, when international spending in Catalonia was at €3.091bn and is the fourth highest amount on record. 

Per sectors, those that stand out are cinematographic activities (€624.4m), programming and IT consulting (€519.m), storage and transport of goods (€189.4m), construction (€188.2m) and pharmaceutical products (€113.8m).

Catalonia was the part of Spain with the third-highest amount of foreign investment last year behind Madrid's €17.226bn and the Basque Country's €5.516bn. 

In the last quarter alone, Catalonia attracted €1.149bn, 26.3% more than over the same period in 2021. 

€6.4bn in foreign investment according to Catalonia

The figures provided by the Spanish government on Tuesday are drastically different from those announced by Catalonia's business minister, Roger Torrent, just weeks ago. 

Spain's industry, commerce, and tourism ministry calculates foreign investment based on where companies' headquarters are located, not where the money is spent.  

Because of this, according to Torrent, there was actually €6.4bn worth of foreign investment in Catalonia last year, 50% more than in 2021. 

The Spanish ministry's data "paints a totally biased scenario," he said, arguing that it does not take into account factors such as "the capitalization effect" and adds operations of a financial nature.