SBA Fact Sheet 2013 SPAIN. Enterprise and Industry. In a nutshell. About the SBA Fact Sheets 1

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1 EN Enterprise and Industry SBA Fact Sheet 2013 SPAIN In a nutshell The crisis plunged Spain into a deep and prolonged recession between 2008 and 2012, with both large and small enterprises facing negative growth across the board. Among sectors, constructions and manufacturing were hit the most. The reforms currently implemented by Spain should have a positive effect on growth and employment, but their effect will not become evident until Export performance by SMEs and large companies will be the main envisioned source of growth on the short and medium term. Although faced with significant economic difficulties in recent years, Spanish SMEs have also benefited from a number of positive policy changes, such as better framework conditions and financial support for entrepreneurs, and improvements to the bankruptcy framework providing alternatives to insolvency proceeding for firms in distress. Equally, the transposition and application of EU law is comparatively faster in Spain than in the EU on average. Notwithstanding this positive policy developments, further enhancing Spain s SBA performance will require significant improvements in access to credit, state aid and public procurement for SMEs, areas which still trail the European averages by considerable margins. About the SBA Fact Sheets 1 The Small Business Act for Europe (SBA) is the EU s flagship policy initiative to support small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs). It comprises a set of policy measures organized around ten principles ranging from Entrepreneurship, to Responsive administration to Internationalisation. As a move to improve the governance of the Small Business Act, the 2011 review of the Small Business Act asked for an improved monitoring. The SBA Fact-Sheets are produced annually and aim to improve understanding of recent trends and national policies affecting SMEs. Since 2011, each EU Member State has appointed a high-ranking government official as its national SME envoy. SME envoys spearhead the implementation of the SBA agenda in their countries.

2 1. SMEs in Spain basic figures Number of enterprises Number of employees Value added Spain EU27 Spain EU27 Spain EU27 Number Share Share Number Share Share Billion Share Share Micro ,8% 92,2% ,8% 29,7% ,5% 21,5% Small ,4% 6,5% ,2% 20,6% 91 20,6% 18,6% Medium-sized ,7% 1,1% ,9% 17,2% 73 16,7% 18,3% SMEs ,9% 99,8% ,9% 67,5% ,8% 58,4% Large ,1% 0,2% ,1% 32,5% ,2% 41,6% Total ,0% 100,0% ,0% 100,0% ,0% 100,0% Estimates for 2012, based on figures from the Structural Business Statistics Database (Eurostat). The estimated have been produced by London Economics. The data cover the 'business economy' which includes industry, constructions, trade, and services (NACE Rev. 2 sections B to J, L, M and N). The data do not cover the enterprises in agriculture, forestry, fishing and the largely nonmarket services such as education and health. The advantage of using Eurostat data is that the statistics from different countries have been harmonised and are comparable across countries. The disadvantage is that for some countries these data may be different from data published by national authorities. The small and medium sized enterprises are major players in the Spanish economy, owing to their significant contribution to the total economic value added and, in particular, to the large share of workforce they employ. The sector s profile differs from the average one in the EU by displaying a strong reliance on the smallest of enterprises. The microfirms in Spain employ comparatively more people (39.8% vs. 29.7% in the EU) and generate more value added (27.5% as compared to 21.5% in the EU). Like elsewhere in the EU, the SMEs are found particularly in wholesale and retail trade, communication, business services and construction. Spanish firms are specialised in low-tech manufacturing (manufacturing of food products and beverages, textiles and wearing apparel, furniture, etc.) and less-knowledge-intensive services (trade, accommodation and food services, travel agencies, etc.). High value added sectors such as high-tech manufacturing and knowledge intensive services are still under-represented in terms of the number of firms, employment and value added, putting a dent in the competitiveness of the overall economy. The desired transition towards more knowledge-intensive activities is still hampered by the lack of further liberalization of professional services, which should allow freedom of access and exercise of high value-added activities such as the liberal professions. The crisis had a significant impact on the development of the business economy and has immersed Spain, the fourth biggest economy in the Eurozone, into a deep and protracted recession between 2008 and All companies - large enterprises (LEs) and SMEs - experienced negative growth across the board. Many of the traditional problems faced by SMEs lack of financing, low productivity, etc. have become more acute, leading to an accentuated deceleration for SMEs as compared to large enterprises. Furthermore, being particularly dependent on the domestic market, SMEs in Spain suffered further when national consumption plunged as a result of the housing boom and the subsequent cuts. At the sector level, the manufacturing segment has been particularly hit, with a drop of 30% in value added and number of employees for SMEs between 2008 and The main reason is that the automotive sector and its associated industries suffered from weak demand in Europe and high labour costs. Another sector which stands out even more in negative terms is construction. The value added generated by SMEs, as well as the workforce in construction, more than halved since In spite of this dramatic drop, the sector still holds the third rank among SMEs in the Spanish business economy in terms of value added and employment (both between 13% and 14%) in This negative development was clearly caused by the bursting of the housing bubble. Moreover, the late payments to suppliers by many regional and local administrations also accentuated this decline in the construction SBA Fact Sheet 2013 Spain 2

3 SME trends in Spain 3 business of SMEs. The Government approved in 2012 a set of measures aimed at regularizing the arrears accumulated by regional and local government until 1 st of January This mechanism injected around 27 billion of liquidity to government suppliers. Given the country s dire economic straits, the negative developments in business demographics are not surprising, with corporate bankruptcies running at three times pre-crisis levels. Spanish bankruptcies consistently rose throughout the crisis period, from 2528 in 2008 to 7799 in 2012, and are likely to continue rising in These figures are low when compared to the total number of enterprises in Spain; however they do not paint the whole picture. In addition to bankruptcies, which account for insolvent corporations who cannot repay their debts to creditors, voluntary deregistrations of firms also occurred frequently. In 2012, more than new firms were registered in Spain, of which more than 75% solo-entrepreneurs. At the same time, the number of deregistrations was of , leading to a significant negative net effect of firms. The forecast for the future does not give reasons for optimism. The reforms implemented by Spain are expected to halt the negative trends experienced since the beginning of the crisis and start deploying positive effects on growth and employment. However, the economic situation remains challenging. In these conditions of insufficient and declining domestic demand, it is widely acknowledged that Spain needs to look for export demand as a source of growth and that SMEs have a strong role to play. SBA Fact Sheet 2013 Spain 3

4 2. Spain s SBA profile new Spanish administration has adopted a specific strategy for the implementation of the Small Business Act. As part of this strategy, a new consultative body should be created in the National SME Council (Consejo estatal del Emprendimiento y de la PYME) with the aim to monitor de implementation of the SBA. In 2012, Spain maintains a sub-average SBA profile. The country does well in a few of the areas measured e.g. second chance, think small first and single market. Although they were faced with significant economic difficulties in recent years, Spanish SMEs have also benefited from a number of positive policy changes, such as the improvements to the bankruptcy legislation which provided alternatives to insolvency proceeding. Equally, the transposition and application of EU law is comparatively faster in Spain than in the EU. Notwithstanding these, further enhancing Spain s SBA performance will require significant improvements in access to credit, state aid and public procurement for SMEs, areas which trail the European averages by considerable margins. The development of indicators measuring various aspects of SME policy and performance indicate progress and in some cases important leaps forward for a number of areas. Best improvements have been achieved in the transposition of EU law and in fostering a more entrepreneurial culture, while access to affordable financing, public procurement and state aid for small businesses has become more difficult in the context of the financial and economic crisis. For the other principles of the Small Business Act, the status quo of 2008 is more or less maintained. In 2012, improving access to finance was a clear public policy priority. The administration has launched various measures to increase access to finance for SMEs, including the Credit Lines of the Institute of Official Credit to cover the risk of collateral credit schemes for SMEs and the Plan to pay suppliers (Plan de Pago a Provedores) which aimed to improve liquidity for SMEs by tackling the arrears of local and regional administrations. The plan has already helped ease the liquidity problems of SMEs suppliers to regional governments and SMEs suppliers to local administrations. As regards future priorities for SME policy, three projets are considered highly important and have already been announced for Firstly, the draft Law on Market Unity (Ley de Unidad de Mercado) aims to improve the business environment by ensuring the free circulation of goods and services within Spain s domestic market. Secondly, the Programme of quality and administrative simplification (Programa de calided y simplification normativa) should ensure the reduction of the administrative procedures. Finally, the setup of an Internationalization agency (Agencia de Internacionalizacion) should help coordinating and fructifying the synergies between various public bodies and measures to spur export in SMEs and to attract foreign investors to Spain. In , Spain continued to implement the Small Business Act agenda at a sustained pace. Based on the structural reforms announced for 2012/2013, the SBA Fact Sheet 2013 Spain 4

5 Spain s SBA performance: Status quo and development over SBA Fact Sheet 2013 Spain 5

6 I. Entrepreneurship In 2012, Spain continued to improve its score in entrepreneurship but remains still below the EU average. On the one hand, the intensity of entrepreneurial activity as measured the share of selfemployed (16%) or the share of adults who either own a business or are taking the steps to start one (27%) are both above the EU-average. On the other hand, their entrepreneurial endeavours maybe somewhat lacking quality since a majority of Spanish business owners have been pushed into entrepreneurship by the necessity of finding means to sustain themselves and their families, in the context of a stringent lack of opportunities on the labour market. In fact, most Spaniards would prefer wage-earning jobs, as attested by a lower-than-average entrepreneurship intention and preference for self-employment in Adding to that, would-be entrepreneurs are further inhibited from launching new companies by the lack of start-up funding and by an overall not too positive entrepreneurial culture. The public perception suggests that entrepreneurship is less valued and admired than in other EU countries, while the frequency of reporting about entrepreneurship stories in the media gets closer to the EU-average. On a more positive note, it seems that the education system has better results in instilling in youngsters the entrepreneurial values of independence, selfconfidence or decision making in situations of risks. On the policy side, the plan to support entrepreneurship (Entrepreneurs Plan) was adopted in February 2013 (Royal Decree-Law 4/2013 Support Measures for Entrepreneurs and Encouraging Growth and Job Creation) and a new Law supporting Entrepreneurs and their Internationalisation will be approved in 2013 (APLEI). It aims to support entrepreneurship through the creation of a regime of limited liability for entrepreneurs, implement measures to support second chance, adopt improved procedures to set up a business, and develop training programs on how to start an innovative and entrepreneurial activity. The Emprendemos Juntos Programme was adopted in The programme works as a platform to support innovation initiatives at regional and local level, by combining the efforts of universities, clusters and networks of innovation centres. SBA Fact Sheet 2013 Spain 6

7 The Plan to pay suppliers also contains fiscal and social security contribution incentives for entrepreneurs, under the Contract to Support Entrepreneurship (Contrato de Apoyo a Emprendedores). Finally, the Centres for entrepreneurship support aimed to increase cooperation among existing business promotion centres by financing initiatives proposed in collaboration by three members from three different centres. From an overall budget of 1,63 million, 41 projects were financed. The supported activities included training, tutoring and advisory services on the business plans, provision of information about public support programs, fiscal and legal matters, etc. II. Second chance Second Chance is the best performing area on Spain s SBA profile, owing to the reforms of bankruptcy legislation implemented in the previous years. Hence, it is substantially faster to resolve business insolvency in Spain: 1.5 years compared to almost 2 years on average in the EU. The cost to close a business, measured as the share of the debtor s estate necessary for recovering debt, is on par. Finally and more importantly, the social rejection of business failure that stigmatises the entrepreneur who has failed, rather than encouraging him/her to learn from this experience, has been losing ground in Spain, despite the country s dire economic straits. Hence, the support for a second chance for honest entrepreneurs has been growing since 2009, and it is now - at 90% - significantly above the EU-average. On the policy front, no major policy initiatives were reported in However, measures in the pipeline include the possibility of an extra-judicial agreement for settlement payments allowing bankrupt entrepreneurs a fresh start, and the reform of the federal register for individuals in bankruptcy. These measures are included in the Draft Project of Law to Support Entrepreneurs and their Internationalization. SBA Fact Sheet 2013 Spain 7

8 III. Think small first Based on the available indicators, Spain scores better than the EU in this area. One caveat is that the indicators where Spain is ahead are old (2008) and based on self-reporting. When analysing entrepreneurs perceptions, the conclusion is that businesses in Spain have a comparatively higher burden of government regulations than their European peers. On the policy front, no major policy initiatives were reported in This comes on the backdrop of significant policy activity in previous years, the most notable being the full and mandatory introduction in 2010 of impact assessments into the legislative system. However, the SME stakeholders pinpoint that laws and regulations still do not sufficiently differentiate between different enterprise size-groups, thereby putting smaller businesses in a disadvantaged position as compared to larger firms. The APLEI contains a number of measures to reduce administrative burden on companies, in addition to the above mentioned extension of the express licence regime to more premises in more economic sectors. In this sense, it establishes a one in one out clause, guaranteeing that at least one burden of equivalent cost is removed for each administrative burden introduced; speeds up the time and simplifies certain procedures to start up a business; establishes a single contact point through which all procedures for starting up and running a business can be completed and reduces statistical and accounting obligations. SBA Fact Sheet 2013 Spain 8

9 IV. Responsive administration Spain s score in Responsive Administration is rather poor, showing a real need to further simplify administrative procedures. Despite recent improvements, the process of starting a business is significantly more time consuming than in the EU, although it is less costly. The other indicators important for the day-to-day operation of business the time to transfer property, the cost necessary to enforce contracts, the time and number of procedures for paying taxes - paint a positive picture, being higher or on par with the EU-average. One notable exception is the licensing system, where Spain has the highest level of complexity in the EU. As concerns licenses, in May 2012 the government generalised the use of the express license regime, whereby a declaration is enough to launch the economic activity, in the case of small and medium retail and other service premises. Up to this date, it was up to Autonomous Regions whether to establish in their territory the express licence regime, and to decide the premises that could benefit of this simplified regime (Law 12/2012 on boosting retail activities). The government extend this regime to larger outlets (increasing the threshold from 300 to 500 square meters), as well as to more industrial and service activities, with the APLEI to support entrepreneurs and their internationalisation. The licensing complexity index measures the economic impact of legal and administrative procedures for post-registration licensing. It takes into account all direct and indirect costs, the internal company effort and the time out-of-market required for a new company to get the necessary licenses to start operating. It should be noted that in Spain the high level of the index derives from responses that were given prior to some improvements that have been implemented in administrative licensing procedures. Thus, "statements of responsibility" have replaced "licenses" in many instances which have led to shorter processing times and costs. However, this recent change does not appear to be sufficiently known by the business community. Policy-wise, no major initiatives were reported for However, for 2013, the Government has announced a Programme of quality and administrative simplification (Programa de calidad y simplificacion SBA Fact Sheet 2013 Spain 9

10 normativa), which should contribute to the reduction of the administrative procedures. The Spanish government has set up a commission for the reform of public administration. Reform, which is the working group to develop a program of administrative simplification, to eliminate red tape, simplify rules and procedures and to avoid duplication through four sub-commissions: Administrative duplication, Administrative simplification, Common management of public services and facilities and Institutional Management. This working group has just presented its work on June 21, This report presents a total of 217 proposals to reform the Spanish public administration. V. State aid & Public procurement Spain s overall score on state aid and public procurement trails the EU average and does not show signs of catching up. Small and medium-sized enterprises in Spain account for a slightly lower proportion of the value of public procurement contracts than in the EU 33 % vs 38 %. Nevertheless, this is significantly lower than the contribution they bring to the economic value added (65% of value added). Moreover, SMEs in Spain like most small businesses across the European Union benefit only marginally from state aid schemes, with SMEs receiving just about 2% of total aid in However, arguably the most problematic area for Spanish business compared to the EU as a whole is the delays incurred by public authorities in paying invoices to their suppliers. In 2012, they took on average 80 days more than the contractual terms to pay their bills. This average has gone up from 66 days the previous year, and is significantly longer than the EU average of 29 days. On the policy front, the most important measure is the Plan to Pay Suppliers (Plan de Pago a Provedores), with an allocated amount of M, which has helped around SMEs suppliers to regional governments and SMEs suppliers to local administrations. By the Royal Decree-Law 4/2013, establishing a new phase of the funding mechanism and aimed at regularizing the arrears regional-local governments built up before 1 January Furthermore this mechanism has been extended to 2013 with an allocation of 2.7bn, In addition, the government set up in June 2012 a voluntary scheme to enable the centralisation of public debt issuance in Spain, to provide liquidity to regional governments. This mechanism has provided 17bn to regional administrations in 2012, of which 6.7bn have been used for payments to SMEs. SBA Fact Sheet 2013 Spain 10

11 VI. Access to finance In 2012, the credit crunch for small firms in Spain has worsened, causing economic hardship and eating away at the prospects for future growth. After an initial loosening of credit conditions and standards between 2009 to 2011, these have significantly tighten up in Hence, the proportion of rejected loans has increased from 16 % to 21 %, and more Spanish business owners reported deterioration in the banks willingness to provide loans. Access to public financial support including guarantees has also diminished, with 57% of Spaniards as compared to only 26% of the other Europeans reporting deterioration in The relatively limited availability of venture capital is a further limit to the scope for highly innovative companies to grow in the early stages of their development. Finally, the excessively long payment periodsexacerbate the liquidity problems that businesses in Spain face. On a brighter note, however, the institutions and systems that can facilitate access to finance, such as credit registry bureaus, and the legal rights system are as solid as in most other EU countries. Moreover, Spain has timely transposed the Late Payments Directive through Royal Decree Law 4/2013 of February 22, whose effective implementation is critical to avoid the build-up of additional arrears. In 2012, several measures were either implemented, adopted or formally announced to address the growing challenges facing SMEs in accessing finance. A significant measure was the budget increase for Financing Lines of the Institute of Official Credit (ICO), with an allocated amount of million. The programme covers the risk of collateral credit schemes for financing innovative projects of SMEs. The ENISA Growth Lines (Lineas de Financiacion de la Empresa Nacional de Innovacion (ENISA)) is also worth mentioning. The programme provides a growth fund (Fondo Pyme de expansion) targeting SMEs with high growth potential. The Support to Business Angel Networks (Impulso a las Redes de Business Angels) was also extended an additional year increasing its budget by 50% and promoting the creation of new networks. Finally, the SBA Fact Sheet 2013 Spain 11

12 Government formally announced that the European Investment Fund (EIF) and AXIS, the venture capital branch of the ICO, have launched EAF-Fondo Isabel La Católica, as part of the pan-european European Angels Fund (EAF) initiative intended to promote new non-banking sources of finance for entrepreneurs. VII. Single market Spain scores above the EU average, thanks to fasterthan-average speed in the transposition of EU and internal market legislation into national law. Spain has fewer directives waiting to be transposed and lower accumulated transposition delays. However, the indicators measuring SMEs trading record within the internal market shows Spain still trailing the other EU countries, despite some absolute improvements in the shares of SMEs doing exports or imports with other EU-countries from 2009 to This suggests that there still are some unexploited opportunities of trading within the single market for Spanish firms. The main barriers for SMEs to access the internal market concern the lack of access to finance and knowledge about new markets, including specific advisory services target to the needs of small businesses. The Spanish government considers that overall the available instruments for promoting exports are working well. In 2012, the programmes APEX and ICEX PIPE were merged into the new programme ICEX-next, which provides personalized expert advice and financial support to promote the internationalisation of SMEs. Spain also plans to develop new comprehensive plans to develop exporting markets in 2013, with a focus on Asian markets In 2012, no major policy initiatives were reported in this area. SBA Fact Sheet 2013 Spain 12

13 VIII. Skills and innovation Spain is trailing the EU average in skills and innovation. All but one of the core innovation indicators are below par. Hence, SMEs in Spain are less likely than their peers in the EU to introduce product or process innovations, collaborate with each other or innovate in house. However, the firms that do innovate have a higher ability to translate innovative products and services into consistent streams of revenue. Given these results, SME stakeholders argue that more emphasis on supporting the development of innovative, competitive products and services is needed. Their opinion is that there is currently too much focus on purely R&D activities and not enough on bringing these to market, by transforming them into commercial products and services. SME targeted funding programmes, offering both long-term and short-term public support, are necessary. In addition, better coordinated and more efficient policies facilitating knowledge transfer to SMEs, based on the actual value-chain needs and market demands, would be a useful means of encouraging more private investment in innovation. On other indicators, Spanish SMEs perform on par with the EU, such as on their IT readiness, as defined by their ability to sell their products and make purchases on-line. The two indicators measuring training and skills development also reveal modest results: although Spanish micro firms are just as likely to ensure that their employees participate in lifelong learning activities as their peers in other EU countries, the proportion of enterprises providing vocational training to their employees is much lower than the EU average (7 % vs. 24%) in This confirms that RDI funding is not the only element required to boost innovation. In order to innovate and develop new products and services, SMEs need to acquire the necessary business skills to be able to obtain funding for their innovative projects. For this, stronger links between universities and industry players need to be established. Currently in Spain talent is not properly connected with the relevant actors in the business world. This could be achieved through the improved use of institutions promoting innovation such as technology parks, university research centres, incubators, and centres of excellence, etc. On the policy front, in 2012 the Centre for SMEs of Intellectual Property Rights protection was created to SBA Fact Sheet 2013 Spain 13

14 offer free training and advisory services to protect the intellectual property rights of the SMEs. IX. Environment Spain performs slightly better than average on this aspect. Despite having less access to public support measures, Spanish SMEs are more likely, compared to the European average, to take measures to increase their resource efficiency. The opposite is the case for green markets. While more SMEs benefit from public support measures to develop green products and services, relatively fewer of them have been successful in their endeavour, or they are still in early phases of development, before the product reaches the market. Only 23 % of SMEs report they offer green products to their customers (compared to 26 % in the EU) and even less (17 %) generate more than 50 % of their revenues this way. On the policy front, no major policy initiatives were reported in X. Internationalization SBA Fact Sheet 2013 Spain 14

15 Spain lags slightly behind the EU-average in internationalisation. This situation is influenced by the general framework conditions for trading, as Spain appears more bureaucratic than other EU countries. However, although the costs of trading are higher, this does not appear to influence the time required to import or export, which is shorter than in the EU. The indicators measuring Spain s performance on third markets were in 2010 on par with the EUaverage, after notable improvements in the SMEs imports and exports from/to third countries. Still, SME stakeholders are of the opinion that the international potential of Spanish SMEs is much higher than the current figures show. This calls for improved public policies in this area. More specifically, they believe that the amount of financial support is not sufficient and the infrastructure not very well dispersed. The other main barriers to internationalization are cultural and reflect a lack of sufficient knowledge of promissing third markets. On the policy front, internationalisation is now appropriately singled out as one of the priorities of the new administration in Spain. The establishment of the Agencia de Internacionalización (SECEX) was announced in 2013 and is considered to be a step forward. The agency is meant to coordinate and take advantage of the synergies of the public bodies and public measures to facilitate the export of SMEs and to attract foreign investors to Spain. The Spanish government considers that overall the available instruments for promoting exports are working well. In 2012, the programmes APEX and ICEX PIPE were merged into the new programme ICEX-next, which provides personalized expert advice and financial support to promote the internationalisation of SMEs. Spain also plans to develop new comprehensive plans to develop exporting markets in 2013, with a focus on Asian markets. The eleven plans adopted between 2008 and 2011 are assessed as very successful since they have almost doubled the exports to the targeted markets. Spain has also strengthened the links between internationalisation and innovation by integrating the external network of the Centre for industrial technological development into ICEX network. Furthermoreinally, the government plans to adopt by 2013 a new law on chambers of commerce to enhance their role in supporting internationalisation of businesses. Finally, the new Law supporting Entrepreneurs and their Internationalisation will be approved in Among other goals, this legal project promotes the internationalisation of companies and entrepreneurs through different measures: the definition of the Strategic Plan for Internationalisation of Spanish Economy, the strengthening of internationalisation support bodies, the improvement of financial instruments to support internationalisation and the promotion of greater access by Spanish companies to public tender projects of international financial institutions in other countries. This new law will also foster the attraction of investment and talent to Spain, by facilitating and speeding up issue of resident permits for specific investors (among others, entrepreneurs engaged in innovative activities with a special economic interest and highly qualified professionals). SBA Fact Sheet 2013 Spain 15

16 3. Good practice To show what the government does to promote SMEs, we include an example of good practice: Two access to finance initiatives which aim to bring liquidity in the market and directly help SMEs have been identified as best practices: Firstly, the Directorate general for Industry and SMEs together with CERSA and the Institute of Official Credit (ICO) developed the ICO Lines (Lineas de Financiacion the Institute of Official Credit) in 2012, with a budget of million. Developed under the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme of the EU, they cover the risk of collateral credit schemes for SMEs in order to easen access to finance for innovative projects of new enterprises. The programme grants guarantees as collateral for the financial needs of SMEs. Secondly, the Plan to pay suppliers (Plan de Pago a Provedores), with a budget of million, intends to create liquidity for SMEs suppliers to the administrations from the autonomous regions and local authorities. The plan has already helped ease the liquidity problems of SMEs suppliers to regional governments and SMEs suppliers to local administrations. About the SBA Fact Sheets The Small Business Act (SBA) Fact Sheets are produced by DG ENTR as part of the SME Performance Review (SPR), which is its main vehicle providing an economic analysis of SME issues. They combine the latest available statistical and policy information for the 28 EU Member States and another 9 non-member States which also contribute to the EU s Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP). The Fact Sheets produced annually help to organise the available information to facilitate SME policy assessments and monitor SBA implementation. They document the status quo and progress. They are not an assessment of Member State policies but should be regarded as an additional source of information designed to improve evidence-based policy making. For example, the Fact Sheets cite only those policy measures deemed relevant by local SME policy experts. They do not, and cannot, reflect all measures taken by the government over the reference period. More policy information can be found on a database accessible from the SPR website. Please also see the end notes overleaf. For more information SME Performance Review: Small Business Act: The European Small Business Portal: Entr-SPR@ec.europa.eu SBA Fact Sheet 2013 Spain 16

17 1 The SBA Fact Sheets 2013 benefited substantially from input by the European Commission s Joint Research Centre (JRC) in Ispra, Italy. The JRC made major improvements to the methodological approach, statistical work on the dataset and the visual presentation of the data The three graphs below describe the trend over time for the variables. They consist of index values for the years since 2008, with the base year 2008 set at a value of 100. As from 2011, the graphs show estimates of the development over time, based on figures from the Structural Business Statistics Database (Eurostat). The estimates were produced by London Economics. The data cover the business economy, which includes industry, construction, trade, and services (NACE Rev. 1.1 Sections C to I, K). The data do not cover enterprises in agriculture, forestry, fishing or largely non-market services, such as education and health. A detailed methodology can be consulted at: 4 The policy measures presented in this SBA Fact Sheet represent only a selection of the measures taken by the government in 2012 and the first quarter of The selection was made by the SME policy country expert contracted by CARSA Spain (DG ENTR s lead contractor for the 2013 Fact Sheets). The experts were asked only to select those measures that, in their view, were the most important, i.e. were expected to have the highest impact in the specific SBA area. The complete range of measures that the experts compiled in the framework of producing this years Fact Sheets will be published in the form of a policy database on the DG ENTR website alongside the Fact Sheets. 5 The quadrant chart combines two sets of information: firstly it shows the status quo performance based on data for the latest available years. This information is plotted along the X-axis measured in standard deviations of the simple, non-weighted arithmetical average for EU-27. The vertical corridor marked by the dotted lines defines the EU average. Secondly, it reveals progress over time, i.e. the average annual growth rates for the period The growth rates are those of the individual indicators which make up the SBA area averages. Hence, the location of a particular SBA area average in any of the four quadrants provides not only status quo information about where the country is located in this SBA area relative to the rest of the EU at a given point in time, but also to the extent of progress made in the period SBA Fact Sheet 2013 Spain 17