Economy and Environment

Domestic material consumption

The "Domestic material consumption" fact sheet presents the amount of natural resources consumed by an economy as well as the productivity of these materials in terms of GDP. It also analyses Portugal's position compared to the other Member States of the European Union.
Description: 

The Domestic Material Consumption (DMC) measures the total amount of materials used directly by a given economy (excluding air and water, but including the water contained in the materials). It is calculated by adding the material extraction by the economy (gross - Domestic Material Extraction) to the total imports of materials (raw and processed), minus the total exports of materials (raw and processed). The DMC is an indicator of the intensity of use of natural resources by the economy and makes it possible to assess the efficiency of its use.

Material productivity is the ratio between GDP and DMC and corresponds to the wealth created per unit of natural resources consumed. It is used to assess the decoupling between the use of natural resources and the growth of the economy).

This fact sheet concerns mainland Portugal and the Autonomous Regions of the Azores and Madeira and shall be updated on an annual basis.

Objectives and targets: 
  • Achieve less resource-intensive economic growth;
  • Ensure that resource consumption does not exceed the environment's regeneration capacity;
  • Improve resource efficiency and promote the design of economically and environmentally sustainable production and consumption policies, especially in the context of a transition to a circular economy.
Progress analysis:

In Portugal, the progress of the DMC is strongly influenced by the progress of the activity in the construction sector, as the materials that contribute the most to the total of this indicator are the non-metallic minerals, intensively used in this sector. In 2017, these materials represented about 59.6% of the DMC.

Domestic Material Consumption - total and major components

Notas: p - Provisional data  
Source: INE, 2018

In the last decade, the DMC reached a peak in 2008, showing a downward trend since then, until 2014, when that trend reversed with an increase of 5.8% over the previous year. However, in contrast to previous years, the progress observed in 2014 was not primarily due to the consumption of non-metallic minerals but to the combined increase in consumption of non-metallic materials and fossil fuels. This followed two years with small annual variations (+0.9% in 2015 and -1.1% in 2016).

In 2017, the DMC increased by 6.2%, mainly due to the increase in fossil fuels (+ 9.7%) and non-metallic minerals (+ 9.0%), reaching a total value of 163.7 million tons.

Evolution of GDP (in volume), DMC and resource productivity (GDP/DMC) (1995=100)

Notas: p - Provisional data  
Source: INE, 2018

The ratio between GDP and DMC is designated as Resource Productivity, with GDP at constant prices for the purposes of intertemporal analysis.

By analysing the DMC's behaviour compared to GDP, we can see that, between 1995 and 2017, the DMC increased by 13.3% (19.2 million tons), while GDP grew 31.8% in volume (estimated values).

Resource productivity (GDP/DMC) showed a downward trend until 2008 when an inflexion occurred. It should be noted that the increase in resource productivity was mainly driven by the dynamics of material-intensive sectors, such as construction, which showed a significant decrease in relative importance in the Portuguese economy. However, in 2014, this upward trajectory was interrupted. In effect, resource productivity declined by 4.6% in 2014 and began to recover in 2015 (+0.9%) and in 2016 (+3.0%). In 2017 declined again (-3.2%), a development explained by the increase of DMC (+6.2%), much higher than the growth of GDP in volume (+2.8%).

 

Resource productivity in Portugal and EU-28 (euros of GDP at 2010 prices per kg of Domestic Material Consumption)

Source: Eurostat, 2019

Domestic Material Consumption per capita, in Portugal and EU-28

Source: Eurostat, 2019

Comparing the resource productivity and the DMC per capita between Portugal and the EU-28, in both cases, Portugal shows less favourable figures than the European average. In 2017, Portugal showed a resource productivity of 1.10 euros of GDP at 2010 prices per kg of DMC, while the EU-28 average is considerably higher (2.08 euros GDP/kg).

Regarding the DMC per capita, and also for 2017, the numbers are closer, with Portugal showing a higher consumption of 15.89 tons per capita, while the EU-28 showed a value of 13.35 tons per capita. However, it should be noted that this discrepancy can be related not only to the less efficient use of resources but also to the different structures of the economies (Portuguese and European average), particularly with regard to the weight of the construction sector.

Last update: 
Monday, 6 May, 2019
More information at: 

Statistics Portugal – www.ine.pt

Eurostat - http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat