Nine out of ten German companies consider that the economic situation in Spain is good or satisfactory, and six out of ten believe it will continue improving in 2018 and 2019. These are the main conclusions of the survey carried out for Spain since 1993 by the German Chamber of Commerce in collaboration with the International Center for Competitiveness at IESE Business School.

German companies in Spain: Business Climate and Outlook 2018-2021 has been prepared with the responses from 769 Spanish companies with German share capital. Among them, almost 90% expect to increase or maintain their staff this year, while 88% are planning a wage rise for their employees this same year.

The percentage of companies who view the direction of the economy with optimism in 2019 exceeds even the 57% who expect an improvement this same year. The data are generally fairly positive, even in aspects that impact them directly. 90.6% say they are satisfied with the results of their activities in Spain. This figure represents an 86% improvement since the previous survey in 2016, which signaled a return to pre-crisis levels.

Positive trend
Almost 95% of companies say their current economic situation is good or satisfactory, and that they also expect very positive progress for the next three years in sales and in employment, benefits, exports and investment.

According to Rosa García, chairwoman of the German Chamber of Commerce: “This year's results show that German companies in Spain are continuing to rate their situation in the country very positively, even higher than the good results of the 2016 survey. And we also feel very optimistic about the outlook for the next three years in regard to investments, exports and staff”.

The most important aspects highlighted by the companies who took part in the survey are political stability and issues related with human capital. The level of satisfaction could be improved in the first category, along with the functioning of the legal system and administrative procedures, market unity and energy costs. This figure is offset by the main strengths: quality of life, workers' motivation, and productivity compared to Germany.

Another aspect that could be improved in the opinion of German companies is the knowledge of the German language in Spain. 64% believe there is very little knowledge and 75% consider that German should be given greater priority in the education system. 58% consider that a better knowledge of German among their employees would give them an edge over their competitors, but less than half intend to invest in German courses for their staff.

Over 2,000 German companies currently carry out their activity in Spain, generating almost 190,000 direct jobs and over 500,000 indirect jobs.