Material flows include material flows between a national economy and the natural environment, and these consist of the extraction of raw materials and other primary materials from and the discharge into the natural environment, as well as material flows between a national economy and the rest of the world (imports and exports).

The classification of materials1 used in the Material flow account classifies domestic extracted resources into four categories: biomass (from agriculture, forestry and fishing), metal ores, non-metals (stone, clay, etc.) and fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas).

In 2020, domestic extraction amounted to 129 575 thousand tonnes; compared to the previous year it increased by 5.6%. Observed by categories, the largest share in domestic extraction was noted for the categories of biomass (42 776 thousand tons) and fossil fuels (40 859 thousand tons).

In 2020, the total imports amounted to 18 727 thousand tonnes, which is by 6.3% less when related to 2019. Categories with the largest share in imports were fossil fuels (35.8%) and metal ores (20.0%).

In 2020, the total exports noted the value of 16 091 thousand tonnes, which is by 0.2% more than in 2019. Biomass had the largest share in the total exports (53.0%), followed by metal ores (14.4%).

In 2020, domestic material consumption amounted to 132 211 thousand tons, which is by 4.4% more if compared to 2019.The greatest consumption related to the category of fossil fuels (45 793 thousand tons) and biomass (37 293 thousand tons). In 2020, domestic material consumption per capita amounted to 19.2 ton, i.e. it increased by 1 ton when compared to the previous year.

Resource productivity is the ratio between Gross domestic product (GDP) and domestic material consumption and in 2020, it amounted to 37.2 RSD per kilogram, which is by 5.13% less than in 2019, meaning that increase of material consumption was greater than GDP increase, when related to the previous year.