Presentation of the Spanish Business Climate Study [2022]

La Cámara de Comercio de España ha publicado recientemente el Estudio sobre Clima de Negocios en España en colaboración con la encuestadora de opinión empresarial española Sigma Dos. Es una montaña rusa de expectativas, ¿quieres saber más? Aquí te contamos más sobre cómo pinta el clima de negocios para España, lo que resta de 2022 y lo que nos espera para 2023.

Situación actual de las empresas en España según el estudio

Recientemente, la Cámara de Comercio de España presentó su Estudio de Clima de Negocios en España , desarrollado con el apoyo de Sigma Dos.

The study, carried out in May and July, is based on the responses to 2,164 surveys that point to a certain generalized pessimism among companies in Spain. And it points out that six out of ten companies are not very or not at all pessimistic about the evolution of the situation this year.

In his presentation, the president of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce, José Luis Bonet, emphasized that, in the face of this pessimism, it is the task of all of us to recover the spirits of businessmen.

The negative view extends to all sectors and business sizes -with the exception of medium-sized companies-, considering that the trend for other years may be in the same direction.

Despite the general negativism, expectations are improving across the board for 2023. Across all sectors and regardless of company size, all those companies surveyed expect a significant improvement from exports and, to a lesser degree, imports, staff hiring and increased sales in Spain.

On the other hand, the only indicator in which they expect a slight decline is investment. Some believe it may slow down.

This optimism for 2023 contrasts with the pessimism with which some expect to end the year. However, there is one issue that generates uncertainty and that is that 86.7% fear the risk of a recession. And, of course, this is due to the situation triggered by the war and other risks that we will tell you about in the following sections.

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Perception of risks, according to the Spain Business Climate Survey 2022

Energy, raw materials and supply

94% of the companies consider energy dependence on the outside world to be an unfavorable factor.

In view of this, 80% believe that rising energy and raw material prices are the main difficulty for the development of their activity in 2022. This is followed by supply problems and rising labor costs.

Rising energy and raw material prices are the epicenter of concern in the business climate, both from the perspective of the entrepreneurs themselves with respect to the evolution of their companies, and from the point of view of economic activity as a whole.

The war in Ukraine

Regarding the war in Ukraine, companies score 6.6 out of 10 for the impact of the war on their confidence in the development of their business activity and 6.8 out of 10 for the risk that the war could slow down economic growth.

The hospitality and construction sectors are slightly more affected than the average for other sectors.

Next Generation Funds

However, awareness of Next Generation EU recovery funds has increased by almost 14 percentage points compared to last year, according to the study.

Currently, 54.1% of companies are familiar with them, and it is the larger companies that are best informed of their existence.

Similarly, the number of companies that know how to access these funds has improved by 11 percentage points, reaching 38.4%, and 24.2% of the companies surveyed have already applied or are going to do so.

On the other hand, 56.7% have not applied for them and are not considering doing so for the time being.

You may also be interested in: Consequences of the Ukrainian war in Spain

Positive outlook for the Spanish business climate in 2023

Miguel de la Fuente, who is director of research at Sigma Dos, points out that this negative perception tends to be very common in surveys. In this sense, despite the fact that expectations for the remainder of the year are not entirely encouraging, the positivity of the companies surveyed with respect to their situation is improving with regard to 2023.

48.5% of the companies surveyed believe that sales abroad will increase, either a lot or slightly. Similarly, 39.8% believe that their sales in Spain will increase, while 24.4% believe that hiring will improve. However, it should be noted that 53% of those surveyed believe that hiring in their company will be the same as it has been so far.

Rosa Díaz, general manager of Sigma Dos, points out that the report was carried out during the summer and that, since there was an upturn in tourism, the expectations that were negative, improved.

However, the enthusiasm is focused on the particular situation of companies. When they are surveyed about the situation of the Spanish economy, some uncertainty is perceived.

Some precautionary measures for the most important risks

The study focuses mainly on the energy issues of concern to companies.

As for possible measures to reduce dependence, more than 65% are in favor of accelerating the transition to renewable energies (solar, wind, biogas and others); 37% are in favor of increasing the number and useful life of nuclear power plants, and 21.2% point to increasing efficiency through aid to companies.

In a majority aspect, 92.7% of the companies consider it necessary to create joint strategic reserves within the European Union to guarantee the supply of raw materials, energy and other basic supplies that will allow them to carry out their business activities unhindered.

Also of interest: Investment opportunities in Spain for foreigners

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