Italy - Total natural resources rents (% of GDP)

Total natural resources rents (% of GDP) in Italy was 0.089 as of 2019. Its highest value over the past 49 years was 0.196 in 1980, while its lowest value was 0.026 in 1998.

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 0.063
1971 0.051
1972 0.053
1973 0.077
1974 0.131
1975 0.128
1976 0.141
1977 0.124
1978 0.115
1979 0.189
1980 0.196
1981 0.152
1982 0.086
1983 0.148
1984 0.154
1985 0.155
1986 0.090
1987 0.072
1988 0.078
1989 0.090
1990 0.086
1991 0.052
1992 0.044
1993 0.060
1994 0.055
1995 0.057
1996 0.066
1997 0.065
1998 0.026
1999 0.038
2000 0.098
2001 0.106
2002 0.094
2003 0.085
2004 0.080
2005 0.106
2006 0.129
2007 0.123
2008 0.148
2009 0.095
2010 0.121
2011 0.167
2012 0.182
2013 0.164
2014 0.142
2015 0.082
2016 0.049
2017 0.068
2018 0.104
2019 0.089

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