Dem. Rep. Congo - Total natural resources rents (% of GDP)

Total natural resources rents (% of GDP) in Dem. Rep. Congo was 10.81 as of 2019. Its highest value over the past 49 years was 36.50 in 1996, while its lowest value was 6.52 in 1978.

Definition: Total natural resources rents are the sum of oil rents, natural gas rents, coal rents (hard and soft), mineral rents, and forest rents.

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 11.50
1971 7.72
1972 7.43
1973 12.00
1974 11.66
1975 6.73
1976 7.82
1977 7.82
1978 6.52
1979 8.31
1980 10.71
1981 9.65
1982 9.62
1983 10.55
1984 13.66
1985 13.27
1986 12.75
1987 16.63
1988 19.41
1989 20.44
1990 20.05
1991 13.33
1992 15.94
1993 10.73
1994 23.49
1995 36.32
1996 36.50
1997 32.20
1998 32.02
1999 28.22
2000 7.55
2001 18.13
2002 18.58
2003 29.11
2004 23.67
2005 23.09
2006 23.67
2007 25.61
2008 28.26
2009 28.31
2010 25.93
2011 28.57
2012 26.85
2013 25.47
2014 24.61
2015 20.12
2016 20.59
2017 24.80
2018 18.18
2019 10.81

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