'Normality' returns after business exodus from Catalonia

A total of 3,700 companies have moved their social headquarters out of Catalonia since last year's October 1 independence referendum. This number makes up 0.59% of the 618,666 firms registered in the country.

The companies that left made up a total turnover of 100 billion euros, according to a government study presented on Wednesday by the Minister of Business and Knowledge, Àngels Chacón.

She stated that Catalonia is at the "end of a phase" and that the figures of companies transferring their HQs have returned to "normality."

From May onwards, the report found, the tendency of companies moving out of Catalonia was low, while "normalization was achieved in August."

80% of the companies that moved away from Catalonia were micro and small businesses. 61% of them moved to Madrid, the study shows.

Criticisms

Chacón also criticized the claims that the independence push last year harmed the Catalan economy, saying that it was "others who damaged it." She referred to a decree passed by the previous Spanish government that made it easier for companies to move their social headquarters out of Catalonia.

"It is painful for me that they wanted to jeopardize the economy," Chacón said, denouncing the use of political interest to "generate fear."

She asserted that during the push for independence, "legal security was more than guaranteed" and everything was "calculated."

She also highlighted that the previous Catalan administration held many meetings with foreign businesses and investors last autumn, when tensions between Spain and Catalonia were at a crisis point.

No incentive

There is also no incentive for getting companies to return to Catalonia, asserted Chacón. The government has "spoken with some of them," she said, highlighting that there will be no type of "pressure or favours" for them.

They will be offered "the same as the rest of the businesses that are here." If a company wants to return, however, they will be "welcome."

The transfer of companies, she also recalled, led to no changes in production centres in the country, and that the fiscal impact has been "virtually nil."