Foreign investment falls by 40% in first half of year

Foreign investment in Catalonia fell by 40% during the first half of 2018, according to the latest figures published by the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, and Tourism.

The total expenditure from abroad was set at 992.6 million euros. This is the lowest it has been for this period since 2014, when in the first six months of the year the country received 512.9 million euros from overseas investors.

This is the tenth worst first half of the year for foreign investment in Catalonia since the ministry began keeping records in 1993.

With regard to the second quarter of the year, foreign investment reached a total of 645.6 million euros, 86% more than the first quarter.

In the first three months of 2018, the country attracted 345 million euros compared to the 902 million euros in the same period the previous year. 2017's first quarter was in fact an all-time

Negative trends

In 2017, foreign investment in Catalonia for the entire year also fell by 40% to 3.1 billion euros. This significant drop came after two record years, with 5.4 billion euros invested in 2015, and 5.1 billion euros in 2016.

During the first half of 2017, foreign investment increased by 27% when compared with the same period in 2016. In the second term, however, it decreased by 62%. The biggest drop came between July and September, when foreign investment fell by 75% less than 2016.