The growth of exports of non-tourism services has intensified in Spain after the pandemic and has been driven by the “cheap talent” that attracts multinationals, which already reflects a structural change in the country’s productive model, according to the experts consulted.
Exports of this type of activities – business, transportation, consulting, architecture or telecommunications, among others – have doubled in ten years (2013-2023) and already They represent more than 7% of the gross domestic product (GDP)with a total value of more than 97,000 million euros, according to the Bank of Spain.
Furthermore, taking into account that imports of this type of services have grown, but less than exports, the foreign surplus has doubled compared to the data from before the pandemic and already reaches approximately 2.5% of GDP, “very high figures” and “very important” for the Spanish economy.
This is explained by the director of International Economic and Economic Affairs of Funcas, Raymond Torreswho assures that what these data show is that the economy has diversified and is no longer as dependent on construction, as it was before the real estate bubble, or on tourism, although this “I still feel like a very strong sector.”
Asked about Spain’s competitive advantages for these activities to have grown so much, Torres highlights two: the price of energy – lower than in other European countries – and, above all, the cheaper labor force, that is, the existence of “quality” talent, but which costs less than in the rest of Europe.
On this matter, the chief economist of BBVA Research, Miguel Cardoso, points out that the dollar has appreciated a lot in recent months, which is why salaries in the US have grown considerably and some services in Spanish are very expensive to produce there.
Given this situation and “with the most contained labor costs”many multinationals make the decision to transfer certain operations to Spain, and in fact, this is reflected in the fact that the destinations where exports of non-tourist services grow the most are the United States and Latin America, Cardoso recalls.
In fact, the co-director of the opinion and reflection group EuropeG, Josep Oliver, insists that the financial crisis left a country full of engineers, architects and, in general, “very qualified people” who have had to make the effort to go abroad to sell their services because in Spain the market did not have the capacity to absorb them.
“We are capable of selling abroad and we are doing it reasonably well,” he adds, while appreciating the fact that these “higher quality” services They generate higher wages and added value than average.
In this evolution there is another key issue, digitalization and the possibility of teleworking. This is commented by the main researcher of the Elcano Royal Institute Judith Arnal, who considers that before the pandemic, in-person presence was required by companies and It was unthinkable to work remotely from another country.
Now it is allowed and that has surely also driven up exports of business services, adds Arnal, who emphasizes that it is “something very positive” that allows us to talk about a structural change in the Spanish economy.
Precisely, the items that grow the most between 2013 and 2023 are telecommunications and IT, 138%, and business services, 131%, good news for the Spanish economy, since “they generate new knowledge and disseminate this knowledge in the productive fabric.”
This is one of the conclusions of the Fedea report “Spain’s export performance: keys to success”prepared by Professor of Economics Asier Minondo, who insists in said document that companies, after the pandemic, discovered “that working remotely is a good alternative to the in-person format” and that they can “offer their services to foreign clients without having to than establishing a permanent commercial presence.
Judith Arnal believes that the authorities now have a role to play in the digital training of professionals, something “fundamental” so that “the maximum potential” can be extracted of new technologies.
And more so, taking into account that Spain is still below Germany and France in exports of this type of services, so it has the capacity to grow by a sector not as regulated as tourism and without so many restrictions, Miguel Cardoso highlights.
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