Euro area - Mineral rents (% of GDP)

Mineral rents (% of GDP) in Euro area was 0.014 as of 2019. Its highest value over the past 49 years was 0.045 in 1974, while its lowest value was 0.001 in 2003.

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 0.026
1971 0.018
1972 0.016
1973 0.036
1974 0.045
1975 0.012
1976 0.020
1977 0.016
1978 0.009
1979 0.015
1980 0.020
1981 0.012
1982 0.011
1983 0.010
1984 0.007
1985 0.006
1986 0.003
1987 0.003
1988 0.025
1989 0.029
1990 0.009
1991 0.008
1992 0.007
1993 0.004
1994 0.005
1995 0.004
1996 0.002
1997 0.003
1998 0.001
1999 0.002
2000 0.002
2001 0.001
2002 0.001
2003 0.001
2004 0.003
2005 0.005
2006 0.015
2007 0.019
2008 0.008
2009 0.004
2010 0.012
2011 0.013
2012 0.014
2013 0.009
2014 0.006
2015 0.004
2016 0.004
2017 0.008
2018 0.008
2019 0.014

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