Korea - Coal rents (% of GDP)

Coal rents (% of GDP) in Korea was 0.001 as of 2019. Its highest value over the past 48 years was 0.611 in 1975, while its lowest value was 0.000 in 1997.

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
1971 0.008
1972 0.008
1973 0.012
1974 0.159
1975 0.611
1976 0.420
1977 0.351
1978 0.217
1979 0.163
1980 0.304
1981 0.532
1982 0.533
1983 0.231
1984 0.151
1985 0.193
1986 0.085
1987 0.003
1988 0.028
1989 0.033
1990 0.027
1991 0.016
1992 0.005
1993 0.000
1994 0.000
1995 0.002
1996 0.000
1997 0.000
1998 0.001
1999 0.000
2000 0.001
2001 0.007
2002 0.000
2003 0.000
2004 0.007
2005 0.004
2006 0.004
2007 0.006
2008 0.016
2009 0.005
2010 0.007
2011 0.009
2012 0.005
2013 0.003
2014 0.002
2015 0.001
2016 0.001
2017 0.001
2018 0.001
2019 0.001

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