Madrid loses bellows in the race against other communities in Spain to attract companies. The absorbing effect of capitality and fiscal reduction policies applied by its president, served him last year to add 266 new companies, but by analyzing what societies they arrive and which ones they leave, the balance shows billing losses worth 3,486 million euros. The other side of the currency is Catalonia, which earns business volume despite losing companies. Follow the inertia that led to the process Independentist and 371 casualties were counted last year, the Spanish community that saw the most firms. However, the new companies that the community receives generate more money than those that go, and by volume of billing Catalonia benefits from a positive balance of 1,866 million euros. The recent movements of, the predicted from this year a greater impact on the Catalan balance.
A study with public data prepared by the D&B consultancy indicates that business moving between communities respond to various factors and are a recurring dynamic. In 2024, 5,254 changes were counted, the fourth highest figure since the study began to be carried out in 2015. The data highlights that, in terms of economic impact, there is no synchrony between giving more welcome and presenting better accounts. On the contrary, it can be more. In response to the net billing balance left by business movements, A, and it is the second community with the best indicators, despite being the one that saw the most firms leave, 371, very distance from the second, Navarra (88).
The study concludes that “the changes of few companies greatly impact on the balances per sales figure.” D&B reports, a Specialized CESCE subsidiary in the collection, analysis, treatment and sale of information from national and international companies, is fixed in the total number of companies that change their home in Spain and enters to detail the accounting consequences that the movement has for each territory, depending on the billing of the companies that have moved.
There are cases where a correlation is observed, such as Andalusia, which counts 81 companies of more and 381 million positive; or the Valencian Community, which wins 142 companies and comes a balance in favor of 7,574 million euros. But the report already warns that, rather than winning tenants, this Valencian positive balance “is explained by the change of Ford Spain to this community.” Ford, who has his factory in Almussafes since 1973, decided in 2024.
The president of the community, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, claims that. “We are a region that contributes, which grows,” he defended publicly. However, the Community of Madrid adds 266 companies did not serve him last year to dodge the red numbers. Analyzing all movements, it registered a negative sales balance of 3,486 million euros, the second worst of the series, only behind the 4,573 million negative euros suffered by Castilla y León, penalized by the march of the Renault Spain Commercial Company, which moved its registered office of Valladolid.
The escape of companies in Catalonia was one of the most high effects that produced the 2017 independence pulse. It is estimated that more than 4,500 societies moved away their registered office in Catalonia, for fear of the legal insecurity that caused the process. The data confirms that the business transfer continues, although at a lower intensity. Between 2017 and 2018, Catalonia registered a net billing loss of almost 45,000 million euros, which departed, in many cases, in the direction of the Community of Madrid. Now, the dynamic has changed.
Recover normality
The Catalan Government, in a minority, has not been able to approve the budgets of 2025, and tries to manage negotiations with Republican Esquerra to agree on a new autonomous financing model. He president Salvador Illa took advantage of this week the informative impact of the return to Barcelona of the La Caixa and Criteria Foundation to point out that “it is time to bet on Catalonia,” and stressed that “a full performance Catalonia is good for everyone.” When last summer he assumed the command of the Generalitat, he said that among his priorities he is returning “normality” to Catalonia. Both he and his have stressed that, beyond institutional stability, normality also leads to the conditions to guarantee legal certainty and predictability for companies that want to operate in Catalonia.
Illa announced in January an investment of 18.5 billion euros in a package of measures to revitalize the economy and put Catalonia to compete with Madrid, which goes through being the community with the greatest weight in the GDP in the country. “That in Spain nobody is afraid that Catalonia deploy all their potential,” said Illa, and insisted that his bet is that of shared prosperity.
At the beginning of February, in the presentation of results of Banco Sabadell, the entity’s CEO, César González-Bueno, said the return to Catalonia is. Before the Sabadell, they had communicated their return molins and laboratories Ordesa. On the transfer of La Caixa, the president of Pimec, Antoni Cañete, highlights that “it is a natural movement and consistent with the economic and business importance of Catalonia.” The president of Foment del Treball, Josep Sánchez Llibre, has dared to predict that “there will be more returns of return, soon.”
