Ireland - Forest rents (% of GDP)

Forest rents (% of GDP) in Ireland was 0.015 as of 2019. Its highest value over the past 49 years was 0.067 in 1985, while its lowest value was 0.011 in 2017.

Definition: Forest rents are roundwood harvest times the product of average prices and a region-specific rental rate.

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 0.036
1971 0.030
1972 0.035
1973 0.045
1974 0.028
1975 0.033
1976 0.052
1977 0.032
1978 0.041
1979 0.028
1980 0.025
1981 0.024
1982 0.065
1983 0.053
1984 0.058
1985 0.067
1986 0.056
1987 0.051
1988 0.049
1989 0.057
1990 0.056
1991 0.042
1992 0.045
1993 0.042
1994 0.043
1995 0.042
1996 0.043
1997 0.032
1998 0.031
1999 0.027
2000 0.026
2001 0.022
2002 0.025
2003 0.020
2004 0.014
2005 0.013
2006 0.014
2007 0.014
2008 0.013
2009 0.015
2010 0.018
2011 0.018
2012 0.017
2013 0.018
2014 0.018
2015 0.014
2016 0.016
2017 0.011
2018 0.017
2019 0.015

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