Resource productivity

This figure shows the resource productivity as a time series between 2000 and 2023 for the EU27 aggregated. In 2023, the EU’s resource productivity reached 2.73. This means that for every kg material used as input to the EU economy, in terms of the MFA material categories fossil energy materials/carriers, biomass, non-metallic minerals and metal ores used domestically, two euros and 73 cents of production activity is generated. A stable ratio persisted before 2009 just above 1.5 with an increase observed since 2009. The resource productivity reached above 2 for the first time in 2015 and hasn’t been below 2 ever since. OECD data allows a comparison with other major economies shows EU performance for material productivity of non-energy materials which shows the EU with a similar level to the USA, below Japan, and well-above China.

Resource productivity is an important indicator of material use. Resource productivity is the ratio of the gross domestic product (GDP) to domestic material consumption (DMC). A higher ratio over time indicates decoupling due to higher economic growth achieved with the consumption of less resources. Resource productivity in developed countries generally shows an upward trend due to efficiency improvements as a result of innovation, changing economic structures towards more services and shifting extraction activities abroad and innovation.

It is important to monitor how much the circular economy contributes to higher resource productivity. This would require an in-depth decomposition analysis taking multiple causal factors into account. Still, looking at the broad resource productivity, increases of it indicate that a growing economy is possible without demand for additional resource input.