Spanish companies enter 2025 with a renewed optimism in comparison with their European counterparts, following the 32nd edition of the Survey of Business Perspectives, developed by the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in collaboration with Eurocámaras. This study, which collected the opinion of 1,765 Spanish companies out of a total of 42,000 participants across Europe, reveals that the degree of corporate trust in Spain has a positive balance of 15.4 points. This figure widely exceeds the averages of the European Union (4.1) and the eurozone (2.9), placing Spain as one of the countries with the best economic prospects on the continent.
The optimism of Spanish companies is mainly based on the good forecasts for exports and national sales. In the context of exports, Spanish companies have a positive balance of 36.8 points, significantly higher than the 6.2 recorded by European companies. In terms of domestic sales, the Spanish companies also have a balance of 20.1 points, ahead of the 8.9 of the European companies. This behavior is especially surprising in a European context where growth is positive but more moderate.
Moderate growth in employment and reversal
While exports and domestic sales boost business optimism in Spain, other indicators reflect more moderate growth. Spanish companies hope for a 3.2% increase in staff, compared to the 1.2% expected by European companies. In the case of the reversal, a positive balance of 1.4 points is recorded in Spain, while in Europe the maximum figure reaches 0.1.
In general, the European continent expects growth in economic activity in 2025, albeit with an improvement compared to expectations for 2024. The positive balances, although not high, represent significant progress for business prospects, especially in the Como areas. the national winds (which rose from 7 to 8.9 points) and exports (from 4.3 to 6.2 points). However, Work and Reversal show a decline, with Work balance decreasing from 3 to 1.2 and Reversal falling from 0.6 to 0.1 points.
Portugal, Türkiye and Montenegro lead business optimism in Europe
In the comparison between countries, Portugal presents itself as the country in which entrepreneurs have expectations of mayor for 2025, with a positive balance of 47 points, eight points more than the previous year. The following are Türkiye and Montenegro, with balances of 45 and 38 points, respectively. In contrast, companies from Austria, Germany and Serbia are at the other extreme, with negative balances of -15.4, -11.3 and -8.8 points, reflecting the impact of the economic brake in Berlin on its prospects entrepreneurial.
Brechas enters expectations and results in Spain
Despite the generalized optimism, the expectations of Spanish companies for 2024 are not complete in various aspects, according to the information. The major differences were in exports, where the hoped for balance was 35.2 points, but the actual result was only 9.7 points. In domestic sales, the breach was also significant, with a predicted balance of 21.2 points ahead of a final result of just 2.1 points. These data imply the need for caution, since optimistic expectations do not always translate into concrete results.
Labor costs, the main destiny for 2025
An aspect that worries Spanish companies is the impact of labor costs on their activity for 2025. According to the report, 72.6% of companies believe that labor costs will be the main factor influencing their work, especially before the new possible subidas of the Interprofessional Minimum Wage (SMI). Furthermore, personal qualification skills and skill-based salary increases also loom as major obstacles, affecting 48% of businesses, an increase of six points compared to the previous year.
This is the administrative burden that continues to be a recurring problem for the corporate sector. The combination of these factors alleviates the need to advance public policy by reducing barriers and promoting a more competitive environment for business.
A promising future, but with caution
Although Spanish companies lead growth prospects in Europe, optimism must be managed with caution. Violations between expectations and outcomes in 2024 and structural challenges, such as labor costs and administrative expenses, mean that the path to sustained progress will require as much entrepreneurial commitment as effective public policies.
In a European context that shows moderate but consistent improvements, Spain is in a privileged position to capitalize on its entrepreneurial optimism and consolidate its economic growth, always and when embracing the accounts that still persist.
