Statistics Portugal (INE) and the Cooperative António Sérgio for Social Economy (CASES) release the results of the fourth edition of the Social Economy Satellite Account (SESA), for the years 2019 and 2020. The project was developed within the scope of a collaboration protocol between INE and CASES.
With this new edition of the SESA, the more up-to-date statistical information is available for an analytical assessment of the economic dimension and the main characteristics of the Social Economy (SE) sector in Portugal. In addition, focusing on 2019 and 2020, being the first SESA containing data for two years, this edition captured the initial effects that the global pandemic caused by the new Coronavirus had on the sector.
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Results summary.
In 2020, the Gross Added Value (GVA) of Social Economy (ES) represented 3.2% of the GVA of the national economy, having increased slightly (0.4%) compared to 2019. This evolution was contrary to what was observed in the national economy, whose GVA decreased by 5.8%, in the first year in which the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic were felt.
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Between 2019 and 2020, SE organizations accounted for 5.1% and 5.2% of total employment and 5.8% and 5.9% of employees in the national economy. Furthermore, it should be noted that employment and employees in SE increased slightly (0.3% and 0.4%, respectively), revealing an evolution also opposite to that observed in the national economy (decrease of 2.2% and 1.4%, respectively).
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By groups of SE entities, in both years, Associations with altruistic goals stood out which, together with the Community and self-management subsectors, congregated more than 95% of the total units and more than 60% of the total SE GVA, employees and compensation of employees.
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Human health and social services were the most relevant activities in terms of GVA and employment, with Human health being responsible for 25.5% of GVA and 33.2% of employees in ES.
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CASES highlights as a specific feature of this Satellite Account the strong impact of the global pandemic caused by the COVID-19 disease in 2020. The Social Economy, conveyed by Cooperatives, Mutualist Associations, Holy Houses of Mercy, Foundations, IPSS, Associations with Altruistic purposes and the Community and self-Management subsectors, revealed a positive economic behaviour when compared to the national economy. Consequently, and once again, this sector revealed its resilient and countercyclical nature in response to a moment of crisis.
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On September 6th, a detailed publication will be released accompanied by a public session, with streaming and simultaneous translation, that will focus on the results now presented, as well as a set of additional findings that complement the SESA 2019/2020.