Turnover of Catalan SMEs rose 6% in 2016
The turnover of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Catalonia improved 6% in 2016, according to the annual report on SMEs from the Pimec business association. The study, which includes information for 2016 from around 75,000 Catalan companies, shows that SMEs made up 58.9% of the country’s gross value added (GVA), in other words the value of production in Catalonia, compared with the 36% of large companies and the 4% of public services.
The study shows that in 2016 the real GVA of SMEs improved by 3.3%, while the number of SMEs grew by 3.2% to a total of 513,320 companies. As for the number of employees, that number also went up by 4.2% to 1,832,003.
According to the Pimec report, Catalan SMEs make up 99.8% of the country’s companies. Apart from the 6% rise in turnover, the profitability of these companies before tax also went up, to around 10%. Geographically, the areas of Barcelona and Girona registered the best financial profitability (10% and 9.8% respectively).
The head of Pimec’s Observatory, Modest Guinjoan, said that “2016 was a good year. Companies were created and profitability and solvency improved.” Exports also did well, with 26.3% of Catalan firms selling their products abroad.