2025/Q3 Article 03. Foreign direct investment in Spain in a context of fragmenting international relations
Series: Economic Bulletin.
Author: Iván Andrino López, Esther López Espinosa, César Martín Machuca and Olga Matos Celemín.
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Abstract
Rationale
This article describes the behaviour of Spain’s foreign direct investment (FDI) flows and stocks in recent years, against a backdrop in which firms and governments increasingly take into account geostrategic considerations in their decisions on such transactions.
Takeaways
- Over the past decade, inward FDI flows have performed better in Spain than at global level and in the main euro area economies.
- The geographical composition of Spain’s stock of inward FDI suggests a relatively low exposure to geopolitical risk, with other European Union countries being the ultimate counterpart for nearly 50% of the country’s total FDI stock in 2023. The second most important source of Spain’s FDI is the United States, which accounts for 14%.
- However, in the current complex setting, extraordinary uncertainty surrounds the stability and strength of some traditional geopolitical alignments.