IE Business School presents the GEM Spain Report for 2007

Entrepreneurial activity in Spain grew by 4.11% in 2007, as shown by the results of the GEM (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor) Report, the leading international observatory on entrepreneurial activity worldwide.

Experts from IE Business School lead the Spanish arm of the project, sponsored by the Department for SMEs at the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Banesto and the Incyde Foundation. The presentation of the new edition of the GEM Report took place on Thursday, February 28, 2008 at IE Business Schoolâ??s Madrid campus, and was attended by Spainâ??s General Secretary for Industry Joan Trullén, the Spanish Director General of Policy for SMEs, María Callejón, and other key players from the field of entrepreneurship.

One of the main conclusions of the report is that there was moderate growth of entrepreneurial activity in Spain 2007. The TEA (Total Entrepreneurial Activity), an index used to measure the number of business start-ups, stands at 7.6% for 2007 in comparison with 7.3% for the previous year. This rate of growth places Spain in 4th position among EU countries and 8th among the OCDE countries analyzed by the GEM Report. Moreover, the â??death rateâ? of business start-ups in Spain has dropped by 16.6%, pointing to higher rates of consolidation. In the words of Ignacio de la Vega, Director of the GEM Report in Spain and Professor at IE Business School, â??2007 was a good year for entrepreneurial activity as a whole. In addition to an increase with regard to 2006, which saw spectacular rates of growth, business start-ups are growing in quality and dimension, and are based on increasingly solid business models which translate directly into a marked drop in business death ratesâ?.