Business creation is advancing at an ever-increasing pace. So far this year, nearly 70,000 new businesses have been opened in Spain, a figure that far exceeds the 15,416 closed until July and represents the highest volume of companies established in the first seven months of the year since 2008.. Commerce and real estate are leading the boom in business creation, which is growing in parallel with business confidence.

Between the months of January and July, a total of 69,227 companies have been created in Spain, 11.24% more than in the same period last year. In fact, it has been fifteen years since so many companies were established during the first seven months, since 70,410 were reached in 2008.. According to the latest data on commercial companies updated this week by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), the volume of businesses that have opened their doors is well above the closures.. Throughout the first seven months of 2023, a total of 15,416 companies have been dissolved, so that in total Spain has gained 53,811 companies so far this year.

In July alone – the last month for which there is data – an average of 267 companies were formed daily, for a total of 8,292 companies.. This is the second largest data for a seventh month of the year since 2007, only surpassed by the recovery of 2021, after the slowdown derived from the pandemic. The volume of businesses opened in July 2023 exceeds last year's record by 15.44%, which not only maintains the streak of positive year-on-year rates started at the beginning of the year, but also accelerates the pace compared to 14, 46% from the previous month. Although business creation usually suffers in the summer, the balance for July has been positive, since only 1,546 dissolutions were registered, 4.8% less than in the same period in 2022.. That is, 50 businesses closed their doors every day.

One in five newly created companies has concentrated in the commerce sector, which has been the most dynamic. They were followed by real estate agencies, banks and insurance, which represent, for their part, 17% of the openings.. Also noteworthy is the expansion of the business fabric in hospitality and construction, which 6,779 and 6,643 companies have won respectively so far this year.. In this way, the incorporation of companies in 2023 has reinforced the most active sectors. According to the INE business directory, at the end of 2022 there were 714,227 businesses and 425,251 companies dedicated to construction in Spain, these being the largest.

So far this year, not only has the creation of companies increased, but also capital increases, a maneuver with which companies increase their resources to be able to face debts or new projects, for example.. Between January and July, there have been 18,978 companies that have resorted to this route, while 4,509 have reduced their capital, 5.28% and 7.56% more respectively than in the first seven months of last year.. In July, the average subscribed capital decreased by 4.1% to 42,521 euros per company.

In expectation

The dynamism of the business fabric is related to the perceptions of the private sector about the evolution of the economy, given that good general behavior facilitates in principle the good progress of business, and vice versa.. According to data from the INE, the business confidence index in Spain has increased for three quarters since the beginning of the year. This indicator, which measures the opinion of businessmen about the current and future situation of their business with the aim of anticipating the evolution of the economy, grew by 2.6% for the period between July and September compared to the three months. previous.

However, it remains to be seen if these good prospects for businessmen continue to rise in the coming months, since economic forecasts suggest that the performance of the economy will be worse in the second half of the year than in the first.. “We are entering a clear period of very low growth,” said the president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Christine Lagarde, this Thursday at a press conference, after the monetary authority undertook a new increase in interest rates. that redoubles the pressure on those companies that have debts. “Difficult times have arrived,” he said.

In fact, despite the strength of business creation, the behavior of the last month could predict a soon change of pace. Although not so many companies were established in the seventh month of the year since 2007 and the overall balance so far this year is positive, the 8,292 businesses that opened their doors in July represent 18.7% less than the 10,206 of the previous month. This is the second largest monthly drop in a month of July since 2006, only behind that of 2022 (-19.4%). The slowdown of the summer months is a constant in the historical series, so we will have to wait to see if the last quarter of the year maintains or frustrates the pace of business openings.