One in five has been affected by the sanctions against Russia and the majority of managers consider that inflation is the main threat
MADRID, 15 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
77% of Spanish companies expect to increase their turnover in 2022 and 46% plan to increase their workforce, despite the uncertainty generated by the conflict in Ukraine due to the invasion of Russia and the worsening of their prospects for the country’s economy, according to the new edition of the report ‘Perspectivas España 2022’, carried out by KPMG in collaboration with the CEOE.
“Spanish businessmen are very aware that we are in a difficult moment, in which additional measures are needed to consolidate the recovery that had begun and to face the threat posed by uncontrolled inflation”, the president of CEOE employers, Antonio Garamendi.
And it is that, given the escalation that inflation has experienced in recent months, which has increased production costs and reduced the purchasing power of consumers, three out of four managers consider it to be one of the main threats to the economy Spanish, according to the survey carried out between April and May. Therefore, mitigating the impact of inflation on the economy is the most common demand among Spanish companies to the central government, as mentioned by three out of four respondents (69%).
This requires, according to Garamendi, a framework for the development of business activity that offers certainty and a stable regulatory environment, in addition to reforms to correct the structural weaknesses of the economy and tax cuts and fiscal incentives.
For his part, the president of KPMG in Spain, Juanjo Cano, has assured that the directors maintain their strategic vision and their prospects for investment, growth and hiring, despite having become more pessimistic in the face of the evolution of the economy and the worsening of factors like inflation.
The change is more significant in the 12-month outlook, as the percentage of businessmen who predicted that the Spanish economy would be better or much better before the war is halved, from 43% to 21%. For their part, those who anticipate that it will evolve for the worse or much worse grow 26 points (from 19% to 45%), this being the majority opinion among the businessmen who have participated in the survey.
The autonomous communities that present a more optimistic view of the evolution of the economy are the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands, an unequivocal symptom that there is a recovery in tourist activity, a key factor in the economic structure of the country and, above all, of both archipelagos .
Despite the fact that the hiring forecasts expressed by managers in the latest survey are more moderate than those shared by the companies in the survey carried out between the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022, they are still mostly optimistic: almost half, 46%, will increase your templates. In addition, the percentage of respondents who will reduce them does not experience changes between the two surveys, standing at 11%. By sectors, Technology, Health and Private Equity will be the most active in terms of new hires.
In addition to inflation, among other possible drags on growth, 37% of businessmen surveyed for the report highlight the weakening of the global economy and 36%, the possible increase in taxes.
As expected, geopolitical tensions climb positions on the list of threats to the Spanish economy. This is indicated by 30% of the participants in the survey, 18 percentage points more than before the conflict in Ukraine broke out.
On the other hand, 39% of businessmen demand structural reforms and 33%, efficiency in public spending. Also one in three respondents, 32%, asks to promote the energy transition and digitization.
In fiscal matters, 36% of those surveyed consider that the tax increase is one of the threats for the Spanish economy in the next 12 months. Regarding the agreement reached in October by 136 OECD countries to establish a minimum Corporate Tax of 15%, only one in ten respondents to the survey held between December and February (12%) believes that it can compromise their growth expectations.
Regarding the impact of the conflict in Ukraine as such, just over a third of those surveyed between April and May 2022 (37%) indicate that they have reviewed or are reviewing their strategy for 2022, while two in five (41%) they haven’t done it yet because their reaction will depend on how it evolves.
Three out of five respondents (61%) consider that the conflict will have a greater impact on production costs and half (49%) indicate that it will have a greater impact on the disruption of the supply chain. 39% also place energy supply problems among the main consequences of the invasion.
One in five businessmen who have participated in the report (19%) affirm that they have been affected by the sanctions imposed on the Russian Government and the counter-sanctions decreed by it. Those that would have caused the greatest effect are of a financial nature, such as the closure of access to the SWIFT framework, the ban on carrying out transactions with four Russian banks and the restrictions imposed by the Russian government on transfers of funds abroad.
3
