Germany - Coal rents (% of GDP)

Coal rents (% of GDP) in Germany was 0.013 as of 2019. Its highest value over the past 49 years was 0.829 in 1982, while its lowest value was 0.009 in 1999.

Definition: Coal rents are the difference between the value of both hard and soft coal production at world prices and their total costs of production.

Source: Estimates based on sources and methods described in "The Changing Wealth of Nations: Measuring Sustainable Development in the New Millennium" (World Bank, 2011).

See also:

Year Value
1970 0.132
1971 0.151
1972 0.116
1973 0.096
1974 0.175
1975 0.559
1976 0.593
1977 0.495
1978 0.338
1979 0.270
1980 0.347
1981 0.738
1982 0.829
1983 0.456
1984 0.331
1985 0.367
1986 0.142
1987 0.063
1988 0.057
1989 0.077
1990 0.104
1991 0.084
1992 0.054
1993 0.031
1994 0.017
1995 0.023
1996 0.021
1997 0.019
1998 0.017
1999 0.009
2000 0.015
2001 0.035
2002 0.021
2003 0.015
2004 0.069
2005 0.061
2006 0.057
2007 0.059
2008 0.179
2009 0.066
2010 0.102
2011 0.118
2012 0.057
2013 0.025
2014 0.019
2015 0.014
2016 0.014
2017 0.017
2018 0.018
2019 0.013

Development Relevance: Accounting for the contribution of natural resources to economic output is important in building an analytical framework for sustainable development. In some countries earnings from natural resources, especially from fossil fuels and minerals, account for a sizable share of GDP, and much of these earnings come in the form of economic rents - revenues above the cost of extracting the resources. Natural resources give rise to economic rents because they are not produced. For produced goods and services competitive forces expand supply until economic profits are driven to zero, but natural resources in fixed supply often command returns well in excess of their cost of production. Rents from nonrenewable resources - fossil fuels and minerals - as well as rents from overharvesting of forests indicate the liquidation of a country's capital stock. When countries use such rents to support current consumption rather than to invest in new capital to replace what is being used up, they are, in effect, borrowing against their future.

Limitations and Exceptions: This definition of economic rent differs from that used in the System of National Accounts, where rents are a form of property income, consisting of payments to landowners by a tenant for the use of the land or payments to the owners of subsoil assets by institutional units permitting them to extract subsoil deposits.

Statistical Concept and Methodology: The estimates of natural resources rents are calculated as the difference between the price of a commodity and the average cost of producing it. This is done by estimating the world price of units of specific commodities and subtracting estimates of average unit costs of extraction or harvesting costs (including a normal return on capital). These unit rents are then multiplied by the physical quantities countries extract or harvest to determine the rents for each commodity as a share of gross domestic product (GDP).

Aggregation method: Weighted average

Periodicity: Annual

Classification

Topic: Environment Indicators

Sub-Topic: Natural resources contribution to GDP