Foreign investment continues to grow in Spain, according to the latest data from DataInvex. From January to September 2022, gross foreign investment flows by non-foreign holding companies amounted to EUR 22.457 billion. This is an increase of 54.9% compared to the same period last year.

According to the Secretary of State for Trade, Xiana Méndez, “These good results confirm that we have a business climate in Spain which is very favourable for attracting foreign investment, due to our open and competitive economic model. Foreign investment is essential for the social and economic development of our country.”

If the investment in these three quarters of the year is analysed according to the type of operation, the most noteworthy investments are operations relating to new contributions (64.6% of the non-foreign holding company  total), which increased by 54.3% compared to acquisitions (35.4%).

In terms of geographical analysis, two countries, the United States and the United Kingdom, continue to account for 54.5% of non-foreign holding companies investment flows received by Spain.

Broken down by sector, 57.8% of total foreign investment in Spain went to the services sector, 39.1% to industry, 2.9% to construction and 0.2% to the primary sector.

With respect to the Autonomous Communities, Madrid continues to top the ranking, with 64.7% of total foreign investment. It is followed by Catalonia (11%), the Basque Country, (10.1%), Valencia (2.9%) and Navarre (2.7%).

^{The full report and methodology note can be found at this web address on the Trade Portal.
For more information on foreign investment, see Datainvex and Globalinvex.}