Brexit has not affected British investments in Spain. Since British citizens voted to leave the European Union in June 2016, investments from Britain have continued to grow. In fact, the United Kingdom has gone from being the sixth foreign investor in Spain to top of the rankings.
Since the Brexit referendum the United Kingdom has invested 10.786 billion euros in Spain, a figure that represents 12.4% of the total foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country.
According to the analysis of investment stock, 56.918 billion euros of British capital were invested in Spanish assets in the form of direct investment in 2017. This figure his up 2.4 billion euros since last year, making it the country with the second largest investment stock in Spain, behind the United States. Furthermore, this trend is on the rise.
The investment stock is mainly distributed in three sectors, with a clear predominance of the first: telecommunications, with 28.9%; the tobacco industry, with 10.9%; and the manufacture of basic iron, steel and ferroalloy products, with 8.7%. As noted by Hugh Elliott, the UK’s ambassador to Spain, these investments go toward maintaining over 200,000 jobs.