Austria - Mineral rents (% of GDP)

Mineral rents (% of GDP) in Austria was 0.016 as of 2019. Its highest value over the past 49 years was 0.049 in 2011, while its lowest value was 0.000 in 1986.

Definition: Mineral rents are the difference between the value of production for a stock of minerals at world prices and their total costs of production. Minerals included in the calculation are tin, gold, lead, zinc, iron, copper, nickel, silver, bauxite, and phosphate.

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 0.019
1971 0.013
1972 0.010
1973 0.039
1974 0.047
1975 0.008
1976 0.017
1977 0.009
1978 0.002
1979 0.005
1980 0.002
1981 0.001
1982 0.008
1983 0.003
1984 0.000
1985 0.001
1986 0.000
1987 0.000
1988 0.010
1989 0.014
1990 0.004
1991 0.004
1992 0.008
1993 0.005
1994 0.003
1995 0.003
1996 0.002
1997 0.002
1998 0.009
1999 0.007
2000 0.007
2001 0.005
2002 0.004
2003 0.002
2004 0.002
2005 0.013
2006 0.014
2007 0.034
2008 0.040
2009 0.011
2010 0.045
2011 0.049
2012 0.031
2013 0.034
2014 0.018
2015 0.009
2016 0.012
2017 0.015
2018 0.012
2019 0.016

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