Foreign investment in Spain exceeds 34.178 billion euros in 2022, the second highest figure ever recorded in history

Spain was awarded 860 greenfield projects and is the sixth largest recipient of these in the world

Foreign investment exceeded 34.178 billion euros in gross terms in 2022, (according to the Registro de Inversiones Exteriores, of the Industry, Trade and Tourism), the second highest figure since records began in 1993, according to data published today in the Foreign Investment DataInvex Register by the Spanish Secretariat for Trade. This is an increase of 13.9% compared to 2021.

According to the Minister for Industry, Trade and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, “these figures show the strength of the Spanish economy and the enormous confidence that foreign investors have in Spain. We should also bear in mind that these investments have been made in a very complex global context, in the midst of a war in Europe and in the wake of an intense energy crisis responsible for levels of inflation that have been unprecedented in the past four decades on the continent. In this difficult and uncertain international context, Spain offers security and certainty thanks to the deployment of the ambitious investment and reform agenda that the Government of Spain has set in motion through the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.”

In net terms, i.e. foreign investment minus foreign disinvestment, the figure for non-ETVE (Foreign Securities Holding Company) investments has reached 23.892 billion euros, 9.8% more than in 2021. Looking at last year's investments, more than 87% of foreign investment went to unlisted companies.

Geographically, the US is the main investor in Spain, accounting for 27.7% of the non-ETVE investment flows to the country. It is followed by the UK (17.8% of investment) and Germany (14%).

By sector, more than half of the total foreign investment in Spain (55.1%) went to the services sector, followed by industry (42.2%), then construction (2.5%) and the primary sector (0.2%). In 2022, the manufacturing sector did in addition exceed 10.111 billion euros, which is a record. The telecommunications sector received investments of over 2.713 billion euros, the best figure in the past 10 years. Renewable energy as a whole received over 2.8 billion euros, 872 million euros of which went to wind energy (the third best figure in history) and 1.971 billion euros went to solar energy (the fourth best figure ever). Investments in the programming and IT sector reached 1.4 billion euros, the second best figure  since 2021. The research and development sector exceeded 800 million euros, more than twice as much as in any other year. Foreign investment in the Autonomous Communities:

The Community of Madrid, the Basque Country, Catalonia, Valencia and Andalusia are the regions that received the most foreign investment in 2022. These five regions account for 87.6% of all foreign investment made.

Andalusia, Aragon, Castile-La Mancha and the Basque Country all achieved their best ever figures.

Spain was awarded 860 greenfield projects in 2022
Foreign investment in greenfield projects in Spain reached its highest level ever in 2022, exceeding 44.560 billion dollars and creating more than 96,000 jobs, according to fDi Markets, the Financial Times Group's database of greenfield projects.

Spain was awarded 860 greenfield projects from foreign direct investment in 2022, which places the country in sixth place in the world in terms of the number of projects of this type received globally, after the US, the UK, India, the United Arab Emirates and Germany, and ahead of major powers like China, France, Japan, Canada and Italy.

Spain has also recorded very promising figures when it comes to more advanced and productive foreign investment. In fact, in 2022, Spain was the third largest global recipient of greenfield projects in the Renewable Energy sector. It was also the third largest recipient of projects in the aerospace industry and the fourth largest recipient in the Information and Communications Technology and internet infrastructure sector.

In addition, Spain was the fourth largest recipient country for projects involving R&D activities, as well as the fourth largest recipient country for automotive projects. Furthermore, it was the fourth largest recipient of clean hydrogen-related greenfield projects and the fifth largest recipient of artificial intelligence-related projects.

Source: Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism
The full report and the methodological note are available on this website:
https://comercio.gob.es/InversionesExteriores/Estadisticas/Paginas/datainvex.aspx
For more data on foreign investment, see:
DataInvex: http://datainvex.comercio.es/
Globalinvex: https://globalinvex.comercio.gob.es/