55% of international investors did not consider Catalonia as an investment destination during political uncertainty

• 10% say that they will not consider the rest of Spain as an investment destination while the current uncertainty continues
• Only 15% of respondents believe that the latest events in Catalonia will not negatively affect their strategies

Kreab, an international Communication, Reputation and Public Affairs consulting firm, has updated its annual report ‘Spain as an Investment Opportunity’, to include international investors’ assessment on the current political uncertainty in Catalonia. The first version of the report prepared in July 2017, which analyses annually international investors’ perception on Spain as an investment destination, as well as their perspectives for the year.

According to the results obtained, more than 80% of respondents believe that the latest events in Catalonia will have a negative or very negative impact on their investment decisions in the Autonomous Community. In fact, 55% of the total professionals consulted have stated that they will not consider Catalonia as an investment destination while this situation continues.

On the other hand, 10% of the total will not take into account the rest of Spain for their investments in the current scenario of uncertainty. Likewise, 15% of the investors surveyed will slightly reduce their investments in the whole country, given the current context.

Additionally, from the total number of investors consulted who ensure that they will uphold their investments in Catalonia despite this scenario (45%), 15% have stated that they will reduce their investments in the Autonomous Community considerably and 10% will do so slightly. On the contrary, only 15% of these investors believe that the crisis in Catalonia will not adversely affect their strategies.

This July, when Kreab produced the second edition of the report ‘Spain as an Investment Opportunity’, the results showed remarkable optimism about Spain as an investment destination, although respondents considered that political uncertainty was the main risk factor when investing in our country. Now that the independence conflict in Catalonia has deepened, it seems that investors are postponing their investment decisions and even reducing their exposure in the region with the aim of reducing risk.

In the July 2017 report, practically all respondents (96.6%) had a positive or very positive perception of the Spanish economy for that year, 93% of them recommended Spain as an investment destination and 76% expected that their investment in Spain to increase compared to 2016.

Details of the study

The study was carried out by the Financial Communication team of Kreab Iberia. To carry out this study, between the 11th and the 19th of October, 20 international, top level, investment firms, with an international investment approach, were interviewed.