STATEC

Satellite accounts

13, rue Erasme - B.P. 304

L-2013 Luxembourg

Economy-wide material flow accounts (EW-MFA) provide an aggregate overview, in thousand tonnes per year, of the material flows into and out of an economy. EW-MFA cover solid, gaseous, and liquid materials, except for bulk flows of water and air. Like the system of national accounts, EW-MFA constitute a multi-purpose information system. The detailed material flows provide a rich empirical database for numerous analytical purposes. Further, EW-MFA are used to derive various material flow indicators.

The National Statistical Institute (NSI) sent to Eurostat on yearly basis the EW-MFA. The accounts comprise the following reporting tables:

• Table A 'Domestic extraction (DE)': records material flows from the environment into the economy in a detailed breakdown by type of material
• Table B 'Imports - total imports (intra- and extra-EU) and Table D 'Exports – total exports (intra- and extra-EU)': These physical trade tables record the imports and exports of products in thousand tonnes and grouped by materials.
• Table F 'Domestic processed output (DPO)': records material flows from the economy to the domestic environment (e.g. emissions to air, water and soil)
• Table G 'Balancing items': reports some memorandum items which are necessary to have the full material balance related to a national economy
• Table H 'Indicators': presents the EW-MFA derived indicators which are automatically calculated from Table A to G
• Table I 'Material flow accounts in raw material equivalents (RME)': records material flow accounts in raw material equivalents (MFA-RME). Some items are calculated automatically based on data reported in Table A and Table I

EW-MFA record physical flows of materials broken down by type of flow and by type of material.

The type of flow dimension corresponds to the EW-MFA questionnaire reporting tables and derived indicators, namely:

• domestic extraction (Table A)
• physical imports (Table B)
• physical exports (Table D)
• domestic processed output (Table F)
• balancing items (Table G)
• direct material input (indicator)
• domestic material consumption (indicator)
• physical trade balance (indicator)

The breakdown by type of material employs a classification of materials. This EW-MFA classification of materials is hierarchical with main material flow categories (1-digit level). Each main category is further broken down, maximal down to 4-digit-level:

    1-digit: material category;

    2-digit: material class;

    3-digit: material group;

    4-digit: material sub-group.

The data refer to national economies as defined in the system of national accounts.

Conceptually economy-wide material flow accounts (EW-MFA) belong to the international system of environmental economic accounting (SEEA-Central Framework). Furthermore, EW-MFA is one of several physical modules of Eurostat's programme on European environmental economic accounts. It is covered by Regulation (EU) No. 691/2011 on European environmental economic accounts.

EW-MFA are closely related to concepts and definitions of national accounts. Most notably they follow the residence principle, i.e. they record material flows related to resident unit's activities, regardless where those occur geographically.

Further methodological guidelines are provided in various publications by Eurostat (see Eurostat website > Environment > Methodology, heading: 'Material flows and resource productivity').

For more detailed information please see also 3.1.

Statistical units change according to the different data sources (e.g. agriculture, forestry and fishery statistics, production statistics, geological surveys, energy statistics, foreign trade statistics etc.) which EW-MFA are based on.

EW-MFA refer to the entire national economy of the reporting country (see also 3.3 'Coverage - sector')).

EW-MFA include all materials (excluding water and air) crossing the system boundary (between the environment and the economy) on the input side or on the output side. The economy is demarcated by the conventions of the national accounting system (resident units).

Material inputs to the economy cover extractions of natural resources (excluding water and air) from the natural environment and imports of material products (goods) from the rest of the world economy (ROW).

Material outputs are disposals of materials to the natural environment and exports of material products and waste to the ROW. Information on natural resources extracted and traded products is provided by different statistical units.

The national economy

Please see the table in 3.8.1.

STATEC is now producing MFA for T-1, as well as tables F and G.

Not applicable because EW-MFA are not reported as indices.

The unit of measure is thousand tonnes.

The data refer to the calendar years.

Economy-wide material flow accounts (EW-MFA) are legally covered by Regulation (EU) 691/2011 on European Environmental Economic Accounts.

Not applicable in national level this information is required at European level only.

Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recitals 23-27, 31-32 and Articles 20-26) applies.

Confidential data are not shown. The most common approach is to present only aggregation of the confidential data point with the non-confidential data that is the nearest suitable data point.

Not available

Not available

Not available

Annually

Not available.

Not available.

Data tables could be found on EUROSTAT website but also on the Web portal on official statistics in Luxembourg http://www.statistiques.public.lu

The Web portal permits an online visualization of the data under tabular or graphic formats.

Data could also be download under the following format : .xls .csv .xml

Data tables are only available online

Not applicable.

Not available.

Will be provided by EUROSTAT.

Not available.

Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.

Not available.

Not available.

Not available.

Not available.

Not available.

Table A (Production), Table B (imports), Table D (exports), Table G (Balancing items) and Table I (RME) are provided by STATEC and are complete. 

Table F(Domestic processed output) is provided by STATEC for reference years 2000-2022 . Years 2000-2007 for MF.7.1, MF 7.4.8 and MF 7.5 are estimated by Eurostat.

Aggregates related to tables A to G are automatically calculated in table H.

Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.

Please use Annex 3 for providing an assessment of the overall quality of the reported data. 

Not applicable because data are not based on a sample survey.

Not applicable because data are not based on a sample survey.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

12 months after the end of the reference period

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Data on t-1 are provided

Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.

Data on EW-MFA are compiled according to harmonised guidelines provided by Eurostat and hence comparable across European countries reporting EW-MFA data to Eurostat.

Not applicable because physical imports and exports as recorded in EW-MFA are not specified by origin and/or destination.

Please see the table in 15.2.1.1.

Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.

Please use below table for explaining b)-flags (breaks in time series):

not evaluated

Not applicable; reported EW-MFA data are only annual.

not evaluated

not available

not available

Normal revision is a revision carried out during the annual compilation process.
Statistics could be slightly different from the previous campaign due to update in data sources (mainly t-1 and t-2) or break in series could be observed due to a methodological change.
Normal revisions are published at the end of compilation campaign and in the same time as the dissemination of the new results (year t-2).

Exceptional revision is a revision carried out at anytime.
Statistics could be largely different from the previous results due to the correction of an error appeared during the compilation.
Exceptional revision is published at anytime and directly after the correction of the error.

STATEC carries out various surveys where monetary values and quantities are collected.

During each campaign, STATEC verifies the consistency between these variables and, if needed, requests revisions from respondents.

This process implies that data are provisional for several years like MF 3.8. 

For the 2024 data collection, slight revisions occurred for years 2000-2018 in Tables B and D for products MF 1.5.2 and MF 1.5.4, due to the continuous improvement in the underlying trade statistics data.

Data for reference years 2019 - 2022 were also revised for multiple products due to the updates in the underlying trade statistics data.

Will be calculated and provided by EUROSTAT.

Data sources used to produce economy-wide material flow accounts are described in the sub-concepts 18.1.1 (and Annex) and 18.1.2.

Please use Annex 1 to report the detailed data sources for questionnaire tables A, B, D, F and G.

Table I is now calculated based on the Eurostat's RME tool (version February 2024). Internal data available at STATEC were used in the RME tool. The proposed price adjustments are done for all materials, except biomass.

Data are collected and stored annually in the framework of MFA compilation process

MFA are produced based on data coming from surveys.

Basic data are verified before entering the MFA compilation process

MFA statistics are validated before the generation of final results

See comments below.

Not applicable.

Please use Annex 2 to describe estimation approaches for specific items.

No adjustment is needed

No adjustment is needed

Data on fuel trade are extracted from Energy database.

In this database, energy statistics are available following residential principle.

No major problem

Not applicable; i.e. in EW-MFA no time series adjustment necessary.

Not applicable.