Foreign productive investment, which excludes Entities Holding Foreign Securities (Spanish acronym: ETVE), amounted to 17.63 billion euros in 2014, 9.8% more than in 2013 (16.05 billion), according to data from the Foreign Investment Register of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Competition.
This figure is the fifth best since the year 2000 and has been posted in the context of a global investment slump, in which investment slowed by 8%, and a sharper investment slowdown in developed countries (-13.9%), according to the latest data from UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development).
In net terms (gross investment less divestment), the growth in productive investment was greater; 18.8%, up by 13.81 billion euros (11.62 billion in 2013). This upward trend is the result of the increased entry of foreign capital on the one hand, the brake on divestment which intensified compared with 2013: productive divestment amounted to 3.82 billion euros, 13.6% less than the figure posted in 2013 (4.42 billion euros).
The good performance of productive investment practically offset the decline in ETVE (1.3 billion in 2014 versus 3.94 billion in 2013, a 67.1% drop), although this latter investment is not representative for the purposes of growth and employment. Thus, total gross foreign investment through capital injections into companies resident in Spain in 2014, including ETVE, amounted to 18.92 billion euros (-5.3% year-on-year), versus 19.98 billion in 2013.
Breaking down these figures by investment type, total foreign productive investment (excluding Entities Holding Foreign Securities) accounted for 93% of total gross investment and was concentrated almost entirely in resident companies not listed on the stock exchange.
In this period and excluding ETVE, 80.4% of all investment was concentrated in so-called new or 'greenfield' production (14.17 billion euros, up by 11%), i.e. in capital increases and, to a lesser extent, new incorporations. The acquisition of existing companies accounted for the remaining 19.6% of investment (3.45 billion euros, up by 5%).
From a geographic point of view, considering ultimate source countries - where the investment comes from, excluding countries through which money is passed for fiscal reasons - the biggest investors in Spain were the United States (19.9%, 3.52 billion euros), Luxembourg (14.1%, 2.49 billion euros), the United Kingdom (9.5%, 1,67 billion euros), France (9%, 1.58 billion euros), Mexico (6.7%, 1.18 billion euros) and the Netherlands (6.2%, 1.1 billion euros). These six countries accounted for 65.4% of the capital invested in Spain in 2014.
Within this subgroup, growing investment from the United States (108.2%), Luxembourg (82.8%) and Mexico (112.6%) comfortably offset the year-on-year decline in investment from the United Kingdom (-12%), France (-11.6%) and the Netherlands (-41.8%).
OECD countries continued to lead the ranking of investment received in 2014 by a wide margin, with 87.3% of the total (15.39 billion euros) and year-on-year growth of 6.7%. Taking into account just the investment from the EU-28 countries, investment amounted to 9.4 billion euros, 53.3% of the total, down by 17.3%. With regard to EU-15 countries, they invested 9.36 billion, 53.1% of the total, down by 16.8%. Conversely, investment from Latin America grew by 82.7% year-on-year to 2.03 billion euros, accounting for 11.5% of the total.
As regards the autonomous regions, the high degree of concentration in foreign investment received should be noted; i.e., the distribution of investment according to where the headquarters are based. With headquarters being mostly located in the autonomous regions of Madrid and Catalonia, these regions received 49% and 17% of the total, 8.72 and 2.97 billion euros respectively, representing an increase of 0.6% in the case of Madrid and 15.8% drop in the case of Catalonia. A significant increase was also posted by the Basque Country (1.41 billion, 8% of the total and year-on-year growth of 28.5%) and the Region of Valencia (808 million, 4.6% of the total and growth of 381.2%).
Foreign investment in 2014 was mainly concentrated in four sectors: wholesale and retail trade (3.21 billion euros and year-on-year growth of 255%); real estate activities (3.09 billion and growth of 64.5%), financial and insurance activities (2.61 billion and a decrease of 19.1%) and, finally, manufacturing industries (2.06 billion euros and a decrease of 24%). In total, these four sectors accounted for 62% of total gross investment (17.63 billion euros).
If we further break down the sectors receiving investment inflows based on the National Classification of Economic Activities we obtain the following data: in the trade sector the standout recipient is 'wholesale trade in pharmaceutical products', with 1.57 billion euros. In the real estate sector the leader is 'lease of properties on own account', with 2.04 billion euros. The financial and insurance sector investment was split between 'collective investment, funds and similar financial institutions' (654 million), 'other credit activities (613 million) and 'other financial services other than insurance and pension funds' (529 million). Finally, in the manufacturing industries the standout activity was 'production of other food products' (transformed meats), with 467 million euros, and 'paints and varnishes' with 248 million euros.
Over the course of 2014 there was acceleration in quarter-on-quarter productive investment with the following results: 2.28 billion euros in the first quarter of the year, 2.38 in the second, 5.27 in the third quarter, and 7.7 in the fourth and final quarter of the year.
In terms of quarter-on-quarter percentage growth, there was 4.4% growth in the second quarter over the first, 122% growth in the third quarter over the second, and 46% in the fourth quarter over the third. These figures show that by the fourth quarter foreign productive investment had tripled in respect of the first.
This trend can also be seen in half-yearly terms. In the second half-year, productive investment grew by 37.5%, year-on-year, amounting to 12.97 billion euros (versus 9.44 billion in the second half-year of 2013). The figure was also up by 179% on the figure for the first half of the year, when productive investment stood at 4.65 billion euros. to data from the Foreign Investment Register of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Competition.
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