Euro area - Coal rents (% of GDP)

Coal rents (% of GDP) in Euro area was 0.004 as of 2019. Its highest value over the past 49 years was 0.317 in 1982, while its lowest value was 0.003 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 0.056
1971 0.064
1972 0.049
1973 0.040
1974 0.072
1975 0.220
1976 0.237
1977 0.202
1978 0.137
1979 0.107
1980 0.132
1981 0.279
1982 0.317
1983 0.173
1984 0.122
1985 0.134
1986 0.051
1987 0.022
1988 0.019
1989 0.025
1990 0.036
1991 0.030
1992 0.020
1993 0.011
1994 0.006
1995 0.009
1996 0.008
1997 0.006
1998 0.006
1999 0.003
2000 0.006
2001 0.013
2002 0.007
2003 0.005
2004 0.025
2005 0.020
2006 0.019
2007 0.021
2008 0.060
2009 0.021
2010 0.034
2011 0.040
2012 0.020
2013 0.009
2014 0.007
2015 0.005
2016 0.005
2017 0.006
2018 0.006
2019 0.004

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