Central Europe and the Baltics - Natural gas rents (% of GDP)

Natural gas rents (% of GDP) in Central Europe and the Baltics was 0.075 as of 2019. Its highest value over the past 39 years was 0.696 in 1988, while its lowest value was 0.004 in 1982.

Definition: Natural gas rents are the difference between the value of natural gas 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
1980 0.026
1981 0.015
1982 0.004
1983 0.016
1984 0.013
1985 0.018
1986 0.016
1987 0.671
1988 0.696
1989 0.656
1990 0.397
1991 0.307
1992 0.179
1993 0.194
1994 0.130
1995 0.093
1996 0.106
1997 0.098
1998 0.034
1999 0.027
2000 0.144
2001 0.249
2002 0.170
2003 0.154
2004 0.116
2005 0.101
2006 0.174
2007 0.144
2008 0.173
2009 0.180
2010 0.135
2011 0.190
2012 0.205
2013 0.180
2014 0.124
2015 0.096
2016 0.054
2017 0.079
2018 0.102
2019 0.075

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