Oviedo (EFE).- The Asturian business community, accustomed to crises and reconversions, faces 2023 with “caution and uncertainty”, a year marked by the price of energy, the escalation of interest rates and an increase in prices that, although they complicate the life of their companies, it does not make them fall into pessimism, according to the president of the employers’ association, María Calvo.
These conclusions are drawn from a report by the KPMG consultancy, and presented this Wednesday at the Asturian Business Federation (FADE), which analyzes the forecasts, expectations, priorities and demands of the Asturian business fabric for this year.
Although the uncertainty of the moment has meant a reconsideration of the economic prospects of Asturian managers, “it has not clouded the optimism of their business expectations” since they plan to increase their turnover this year and increase their investments above the national average, according to Eduardo González, responsible for this study in Asturias.
The war in Ukraine and its impact on the prices of energy and raw materials led to Asturian industrial production contracting by 0.5 percent in 2022, compared to an increase of 2.4 in the country as a whole, a trend that businessmen hope will fade as the months go by.
Entrepreneurs, however, lack support measures for business and the economy, a stable legal framework and a scenario that encourages investment, according to the president of the employers’ association, who has stressed that Next Generation European funds “can and they must serve to put an end to the structural and entrenched problems of the Asturian economy”.
Better billing and investment prospects
For half of the companies in the Principality, the national economic situation is currently regular and for 32 percent bad, a percentage that rises to 58 percent when referring to the economy of the Principality, a pessimism that is also reflected in terms of to the short-term prospects, since 38 percent believe that it will get worse and 52 percent that it will remain unchanged.
However, Asturian managers are more optimistic than the national average regarding the increase in their turnover and investments or regarding the economic prospects of their companies, although they are more prudent in terms of job creation since less than half they think that they will maintain their workforce and only a quarter believe that they will be able to increase jobs.
Nine out of ten Asturian executives are also clear that the main priority for their companies is to advance in digital transformation, and that innovation and the implementation of new technological solutions will also favor new paths of growth, as well as the commitment to sustainability.
With innovation present as a lever for growth, one in three companies also acknowledged that they had been the object of some type of cyberattack in the past, compared to the average for the rest of the country.
talent shortage
Four out of ten managers state that the main problem in achieving further growth is to retain talent, and six out of ten warn of the need for greater bureaucratic and administrative simplification.
In fact, for six out of ten, the shortage of talent, knowledge and experience is a risk for their businesses and for 42 percent of those surveyed, digital transformation can only be successfully undertaken with the incorporation of talent that is hard to find.
Along with this shortage of talent, most businessmen place inflationary pressure and political uncertainty as the main threats for the next twelve months, in which price volatility and energy costs are also among their main concerns.
The relevance they give to flexibility does not translate, however, into a boost to teleworking, since one in three employers thinks that the most common work model in the next three years will be face-to-face.
For González, Asturias is facing a period “as challenging as it is promising” with digitization and sustainability as bases on which to project and grow, with talent retention as the main differential value.
Asturias closed 2022 with inflation of 5.8 percent, a GDP increase of 1.3 percent and an unemployment rate of more than 14 percent, above the national average. EFE