In 2017, the environmental goods and services sector accounted for 2.8% of national gross value added (GVA), 3.7% of exports and 2.4% of employment. Comparing with the previous year, exports increased by 20.0% and employment by 3.7%, showing greater dynamism than total economy (11.6% and 3.4%, respectively). GVA and output, on the contrary, registered growth rates below those of the national economy, with a slight reduction in GVA (-0.9%, compared to an increase of 4.7% for the economy as a whole). About a quarter of output (23.6%) was exported.
In 2016, Portugal was the fifth country in the EU28 with the largest weight of GVA of Environmental Goods and Services in the national GVA (3.0%, higher than the EU28 average of 2.4%) and of exports in national total (3.5%).
In 2017, National Expenditure on Environmental Protection (NEEP) totalized 2,721 M€ (1.4% of GDP), increasing by 18.9% compared to the previous year (after a decrease of 6.3% in 2016). This result reflects increases in final consumption expenditure, intermediate consumption and investment and the decrease in transfers received from the Rest of the World.