According with the opinions expressed by firms in the April 2021 Investment Survey (with a survey period between the 1st April 2021 and the 30th June 2021), the entrepreneurial investment is expected to present a nominal increase of 4.9% in 2021, which compares with the initial estimate of a 3.5% increase in the October 2020 survey regarding investment intentions for 2021. The results of this survey also point to a nominal decrease in investment of 13.6% in 2020, which also represents an upward revision comparing with the perspectives revealed in the previous survey (rate of change of -16.3%).
For 2021, the increase of Gross Fixed Capital Formation (GFCF) is mainly due to the positive contributions of 5.9 percentage points (p.p.) of firms belonging to the fourth group (employing more than 500 workers), due to a rate of change of 14.6%, and of 2.4 p.p. of the firms belonging to the third group (employing between 250 and 499 workers), resulting from an increase of 15.0% in investment. On the other hand, the firms of the first group (employing less than 50 workers) presented a negative contribution of 3.5 p.p., reflecting a contraction of business investment of 16.2%. 
The main limiting factor for business investment identified by firms for 2020 and 2021 was the deterioration of sales perspectives. Between 2020 and 2021, the relative weight of the shortage of qualified labour force is expected to increase, while the relative weight of insufficient production capacity will decrease.