Saudi Arabia - Oil rents (% of GDP)

Oil rents (% of GDP) in Saudi Arabia was 24.24 as of 2019. Its highest value over the past 49 years was 87.37 in 1979, while its lowest value was 19.33 in 2016.

Definition: Oil rents are the difference between the value of crude oil production at world prices and 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 27.77
1971 34.25
1972 39.25
1973 46.74
1974 70.22
1975 55.87
1976 54.28
1977 54.03
1978 45.83
1979 87.37
1980 71.38
1981 55.84
1982 35.35
1983 33.63
1984 32.67
1985 26.37
1986 22.69
1987 27.88
1988 26.74
1989 34.56
1990 47.30
1991 32.37
1992 33.61
1993 32.20
1994 28.58
1995 29.59
1996 33.32
1997 29.24
1998 20.71
1999 26.72
2000 41.27
2001 33.16
2002 31.16
2003 36.81
2004 42.17
2005 51.49
2006 51.29
2007 47.53
2008 54.50
2009 34.31
2010 41.27
2011 49.98
2012 47.69
2013 44.43
2014 39.73
2015 23.19
2016 19.33
2017 23.32
2018 28.86
2019 24.24

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