Greece - Mineral rents (% of GDP)

Mineral rents (% of GDP) in Greece was 0.048 as of 2019. Its highest value over the past 49 years was 0.259 in 1974, while its lowest value was 0.003 in 1998.

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 0.153
1971 0.159
1972 0.123
1973 0.135
1974 0.259
1975 0.162
1976 0.198
1977 0.195
1978 0.127
1979 0.116
1980 0.119
1981 0.130
1982 0.134
1983 0.113
1984 0.107
1985 0.108
1986 0.066
1987 0.045
1988 0.235
1989 0.195
1990 0.061
1991 0.117
1992 0.078
1993 0.039
1994 0.026
1995 0.014
1996 0.014
1997 0.008
1998 0.003
1999 0.013
2000 0.015
2001 0.008
2002 0.007
2003 0.004
2004 0.018
2005 0.034
2006 0.100
2007 0.201
2008 0.045
2009 0.019
2010 0.081
2011 0.106
2012 0.083
2013 0.082
2014 0.055
2015 0.024
2016 0.043
2017 0.044
2018 0.052
2019 0.048

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