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Some weeks ago, Naturhouse announced that it was abandoning Barcelona and planning to install its headquarters in Madrid. The news, however, had three determining factors that most of the media preferred to conceal: the owner, Félix Revuelta, has clearly positioned himself against the process of independence that is taking place, and will not be closing any of his stores in Catalonia. The size of the Naturhouse business in Spain is far from the 1300 stores of 2008, and there are currently about 600 remaining. And finally, the Banco Popular crisis made a good dent in its assets, in which it has had to accept losses of €45m.

It is important to say all this because incomplete information is anything but information. Likewise for that same old story, so often repeated, that companies are afraid of coming to Catalonia. Or that they’re not coming. Or that they’re not setting up here because they’re afraid. Nothing could be further from the truth. And not because the Catalan government says so, which is a reliable source, but because it has been certified by the Central Directory of Companies (DIRCE), prepared by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

There, it appears that between 2014 and 2017, the growth of the number of active companies with headquarters in Catalonia has accelerated by 5.6%, which is 0.4% greater than in Spain. A total of 608,981 companies have their headquarters in Catalonia, 18.5%. In the Community of Madrid the figure is 526,156, 16%. These are the figures of the INE, an organisation assigned to the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness, but another thing will be the speeches and the propaganda that accompanies them. The dynamic entrepreneurship of Catalonia is a fact, and even a contrast to the not easy political conditions, with many Spanish ministries more determined to trip up the ministers of the Catalan government than rowing in the same direction. And despite all that, these are the results.