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Investment abroad. By activity branches

Investment abroad. By activity branches Catalonia. 4th quarter 2020
Year-over-year variation
Value Absolute % quarter % accumulated
Total 394.9 -134.2 -25.4 93.5
Agriculture, livestock, forestry and fishing 39.0 -17.2 -30.6 -32.1
Mining industries 0.0 0.0 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available
Manufacturing industries 87.4 -29.2 -25.1 312.5
Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning 1.1 -10.6 -90.6 12.2
Water, sewers and waste management 0.0 0.0 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available
Construction 15.8 -4.7 -22.9 -49.6
Wholesale and retail trade 160.2 -66.1 -29.2 -23.9
Transport and storage 0.0 -5.6 -100.0 -100.0
Hotel and food services 36.9 20.5 125.0 -74.4
Information and communications 13.9 9.7 230.7 -18.9
Financial activities and insurance 18.8 2.2 13.0 -35.7
Real estate activities 2.3 -21.5 -90.3 -86.5
Professional, scientific and technical activities 9.4 -3.7 -28.0 -13.4
Administrative and support service activities 10.1 -0.5 -5.1 -48.3
Education 0.0 -7.4 -100.0 -24.8
Health and social services 0.0 -0.1 -100.0 -100.0
Artistic, recreational and entertainment activities 0.0 0.0 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available -100.0
Other services 0.0 0.0 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available
Units: Millions of euros.
Source: Idescat, based on data from the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism.
Note: Provisional data.
(..) Confidential data, low reliability or not available.
Investment abroad. By activity branches Spain. 4th quarter 2020
Year-over-year variation
Value Absolute % quarter % accumulated
Total 12,131.7 2,204.6 22.2 34.4
Agriculture, livestock, forestry and fishing 78.5 -189.5 -70.7 -57.2
Mining industries 92.4 -865.1 -90.4 88.7
Manufacturing industries 664.9 -357.8 -35.0 -0.8
Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning 2,777.0 2,381.1 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available 137.8
Water, sewers and waste management 100.1 22.9 29.6 -24.8
Construction 341.9 -742.4 -68.5 -42.7
Wholesale and retail trade 530.6 -8.5 -1.6 132.5
Transport and storage 1,095.7 1,045.1 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available 237.9
Hotel and food services 78.8 -42.8 -35.2 -61.5
Information and communications 2,638.5 656.6 33.1 28.2
Financial activities and insurance 3,008.6 1,045.0 53.2 48.7
Real estate activities 130.5 -468.6 -78.2 -52.5
Professional, scientific and technical activities 86.4 37.5 76.7 -54.2
Administrative and support service activities 404.5 -206.6 -33.8 -42.3
Education 0.3 -168.8 -99.8 -27.5
Health and social services 103.0 67.9 193.4 142.0
Artistic, recreational and entertainment activities 0.0 -1.1 -100.0 -100.0
Other services 0.0 -0.5 -100.0 48.5
Units: Millions of euros.
Source: Idescat, based on data from the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism.
Note: Provisional data.
(..) Confidential data, low reliability or not available.

Last update: March 23, 2021. Revised series on April 12, 2021. Next update: June 20, 2024

Methodological note

The definition of direct foreign investment basically follows the recommendations of the International Monetary Fund (5th Balance of Payments Manual) and the OCDE (Benchmark Definition).

The data is based on that declared by investors pursuant to Act 19/2003, dated 4 July, on the legal system for capital movements and economic transactions abroad and measures to prevent money laundering, and the regulations that further implement it (Royal Decree 664/1999, Ministerial Order dated 28 May 2001 and Ministerial Ruling dated 21 February 2002). They do not include financing between companies, reinvested profits (save in the case of capitalisation of loans and/or profits) and investment in real estate.

Gross investment includes direct investment declared to the Foreign Investment Registry (FIR) of non-residents which entails:

  • holdings in unlisted companies domiciled abroad
  • holdings in listed companies domiciled abroad (over 10% of capital)
  • setting up or expansion of branches
  • other forms of investment contracts or entities registered abroad (foundations, cooperatives, economic interest groups), in which the invested capital exceeds EUR 1,502,530.26

Excluded from the data are foreign share holding companies (ETVEs). ETVEs are holding companies set up in Spain whose sole purpose is to hold shares in companies located abroad.

The information has been broken down into activity branches by the destination of the investment in accordance with the sections in the new Catalan Classification of Economic Activities 2009 (CCEA-2009).

Foreign investment is obtained from official data published by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism from the Statistics on Foreign Investment in Spain and Spanish Investment Abroad. The data are provisional, given that in the corresponding quarterly updates, information referring to previous periods is modified as a result of operations which were declared in the last period but carried out prior to this.

For each new period published, Idescat updates and reviews the information published by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism for the last 10 years.