Catalonia was Spain’s start-up leader in January
Spain as a whole created 6% fewer companies and dissolved 15% more
BarcelonaCatalonia was, once again, the Spanish region that created the most companies in January. Specifically, 1,829 were set up, ahead of other communities such as Madrid (1,757) and Andalusia (1,413). Trailing the list was La Rioja, with only 45 companies created, followed by Cantabria (73) and Navarre (93).
However, in Spain as a whole, fewer companies were set up than in January of 2016. The number of new mercantile societies fell by 5.8% this January with respect to the same month in 2016, for a total of 8,891 companies. At the same time, there were also more closings: business dissolutions grew by 14.8%, to 3,464, according to data released on Friday by Spain’s National Institute of Statistics (INE).
By region, Madrid saw the most business closings (947), followed by Andalusia (520), and Valencia (292). In contrast, the autonomous communities with the fewest company closings were La Rioja (13), Navarre (16), and Murcia (39). Of the 3,464 companies that closed in January of this year, 80.8% did so voluntarily, 12% because of mergers with other companies, and 7.2% for other causes.
The sector with both the most start-ups and the most closings was retail commerce: 23.7% of the new companies and 22% of those who closed their doors were shops. Another 13.3% of start-ups were in construction, which also saw 18% of the closings. In absolute terms, the activity with the greatest net balance of companies created in January was commerce, with 1,339, in contrast to the agriculture and fisheries sector, with the lowest net change of 177 companies created in the first month of the year.
Nearly 809 million euros were registered with the creation of the 8,891 companies set up in January, which represented a 47.2% increase year on year. The average capital attached to new businesses, 91,026 euros, represented an increase of 56.3% compared to the previous year.
