Business strategies

Europe has the economic scale and industrial capacity to
build credible military capabilities. Yet, national procurement
practices and fragmented industrial strategies continue to slow
progress and leave critical capability gaps unaddressed.

Spanish business profitability has recovered to pre-crisis levels in line with the economic
cycle, but remains deeply uneven across firms, sectors, and regions. Differences in
productivity, firm size, and exposure to competition are some of the factors that explain the disparities in profitability levels.

Spanish NFCs earned modest economic profits averaging 3% of output between 2000
and 2024, fluctuating from 4–5% before the 2008 crisis to near zero after the pandemic.
Investment closely followed the gap between these profits and the user cost of capital,
while the sector shifted toward producing internally rather than buying intermediate goods.