Foreign investment attracted in Catalonia already at 70% of last year’s total

Foreign investment acquired by the Catalan government in the first six months of 2018 is the equivalent of 70% of all investment of its kind from the whole of last year. In the first semester of the year, which went until June 15, the Catalan government has attracted 175 million euros through the government-funded company Catalonia Trade & Investment (called ‘Acció’ in Catalan).

The 175 million euros for the period until June 2018 is almost three quarters of the total acquired throughout the whole of 2017, some 241 million euros. The volume of investment last year implies a decrease of 31.3% in relation to the record figured registered in 2016, which totaled at 352 million euros.

Speaking to the press on Monday, the minister of Business Àngels Chacón explained that these indicators of this first semester in 2018 point to “where this trend will go” for the whole year, which is expected “to be positive.” Chacón also ruled out the possibility that these investments are actually ones that were paralyzed in 2017, because if that were the case “there would be no material time to carry them out.”

The minister also stressed that the decline in foreign investment volume last year does not translate in a lower number of projects or jobs generated. According to data from Acció, the Catalan government helped create 70 investment projects which in turn generated 3,217 jobs.