Geopolitical tensions and the horizon of possible geoeconomic fragmentation are weakening trade openness for companies, including Spanish ones. Added to this context is the increase in financial costs to face new investments, which has weakened the commercial capacity of companies to open markets.
91% of Spanish companies operate only in the domestic market, without prospecting outside our borders. The data comes from the extensive annual field work carried out by Iberinform to enrich the quality of its information, with nearly 500,000 interviews carried out with the management teams of Spanish companies. Only 9% of them face the post-pandemic world by selling their products and services in the global market. This is a drop of two points compared to the rate registered at the end of 2019.
By territory, the greatest internationalization of the business fabric occurs in Basque Country (16%), Navarra (15%), La Rioja (15%), Valencian Community (13%) and Aragon (12%). The lowest rates occur in the archipelagos, the Canary Islands (2%) and the Balearic Islands (4%), in Ceuta (4%) and in the two large inland autonomous communities, Castilla y León (5%) and Castilla-La Mancha (6%).
The communities closest to the French border or the Mediterranean have a more open business fabric and higher percentages of companies that consider their market to be global. The sectoral composition is also relevant. In this sense, industrial (19%), communications (13%) and logistics (11%) companies think more globally than hotels (1%), health (2%), construction (2%) or education. (4%), who work closer to the ground.
Nine out of ten Spanish companies will have to face the uncertainties of 2023 with the opportunities offered by the domestic market, which in many cases It is confined to its own municipality. 31% of the companies operate throughout the State, 8% have their Autonomous Community as their reference market, 27% their province and a significant 25% do not sell outside their municipality. Strictly local companies advance six points compared to pre-pandemic values. This percentage of local companies skyrockets in island territories such as the Canary Islands (52%) or the Balearic Islands (51%). By sectors, companies in the hospitality industry (82%), education (45%), commerce (36%), health (36%), primary sector (26%) and energy (20%) are the most local in contrast to the logistics (5%), communications (7%) and industrial (8%) companies.
