Foreign investment drops by a third in Catalonia during first quarter of 2022

Catalonia received €645.6 million in foreign investment during the first quarter of 2022, a 33.6% drop on the previous year’s  €972.3 million over the same period. 

Data released on Monday by the Spanish Industry, Trade, and Tourism Ministry also showed a decrease compared to the last quarter of 2021. In this case, there is a 28.8% decrease from October-December, when there was €907.9 million in foreign investment. 

And while there has been a recovery since Covid-19, it is still far from 2019 levels when Catalonia welcomed €739.2 million in investment.

Compared to previous years, in 2018 the ministry reported €396.5 million in investment, down from €543.47 million in 2016.

The main sectors are software coding and consulting companies, with €125.59 million. The food industry received €63.1 million in foreign investment, while wholesale trade obtained €43.9 million.

Most of this comes from companies based in the United States (€153.1 million), followed by Belgium (€84.52 million), France (€79.68 million), Luxembourg (77.41 million), and the Netherlands (€69.4 million).

These figures recorded by the Spanish ministry may differ from the ones recorded by Catalonia Trade & Investment (known as ‘ACCIÓ’ in Catalan) as Spanish authorities account for all investments made to a company based in Catalonia, regardless of where production has taken place.