Barcelona (ACN).- Catalonia received more than five billion euros of foreign investment for the first time ever, according to data released by the Spanish ministry of economy earlier today. Investment reached €5.05 billion, a slightly higher figure than in 2015, which already set an all-time record at €4.92 billion. The trend continued in the first quarter of 2017, the best in history at €856.4 million.
One fifth of the investment in the first three months of this year was in the manufacturing industry. Thus Catalonia attracted 47.9% of overall foreign investment in the Spanish manufacturing industry in this period. The Catalan government’s Secretary of Business and Knowledge Joan Aregio reacted to the news with satisfaction. According to him, the figures “clearly point to a trend that has been positive for the past few years and therefore is solid.”
Among the investments behind these figures in the first term of 2017, Aregio highlighted Amazon’s plans to set up different distribution centres in the Barcelona area. The online retailer announced earlier this year that it will set up a 63,000m² centre in El Prat de Llobregat and another in Castellbisbal, which will join its two existing centres . He also mentioned the enlargement of BASF’s fungicide formulation plant in Tarragona in November.