Material flow accounts - 2022

Istat regularly releases, through the institute data warehouse IstatData, data on the physical flows of the Italian economy, compliant with EU Regulation 691/2011, consistent with national accounts economic data and therefore suitable for integrated economic-environmental analysis.

The data released today specifically refer to material flows at the level of the entire economy, measured in thousand tons, with the exclusion of air and water. Aggregate indicators include direct material consumption (DMC), direct material input (DMI), physical trade balance (PTB), as well as domestic extraction of used materials (DE), imports (IMP) and exports (EXP) of materials to and from abroad. The historical series start from the year 1990. Some of these indicators (namely DE by macrocategory, PTB and DMC are also published at regional scale. Regional series are updated to the year 2021, starting from the year 2015.

The “Domestic material consumption” indicator (DMC) is a measure of the amount of materials, directly used in a national or regional economy, which become part of the material stock within the economy or are released back to the environment. The DMC is calculated as the sum of internal extraction (DE) and net imports (PTB equal IMP-EXP). At the regional level the PTB also considers the flows between regions, besides those of the regions with foreign countries.

The DMC is used for defining and monitoring sustainable development policies in national and international contexts, monitoring materials used internally, released into the environment or accumulated in anthropogenic stocks, measuring the circular economy, and measuring equitable and sustainable well-being (BES).

In 2022, the DMC remains basically stable with an increase of about 7 million of tons (Mt), or a little over 1%, after the considerable increase recorded in 2021 compared to 2020 (about 10%), when the downward trend recorded since 2006 stopped, and the DMC returned to a level above 500 Mt, last recorded in 2013.

However, a change in the composition of the DMC is significant; in the face of a decrease in DE of about 8 Mt, almost all of which is biomass, there is an increase in imports of about 14 Mt, of which about 6 Mt is precisely biomass. This is part of a general trend of “replacement” of the extraction of biomass with imports: in 1991 they were 138 and 46 Mt respectively, in 2022 they are 95 and 70 Mt.

For more information, please refer to the metadata.

For information:
Division for Final demand, labour and capital input, environmental accounts

Aldo Femia
femia@istat.it

Flora Fullone
Territorial office for Southern regions
ffullone@istat.it