Lebanon - Total natural resources rents (% of GDP)

Total natural resources rents (% of GDP) in Lebanon was 0.001 as of 2019. Its highest value over the past 31 years was 0.041 in 1989, while its lowest value was 0.001 in 2018.

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
1988 0.032
1989 0.041
1990 0.036
1991 0.021
1992 0.016
1993 0.008
1994 0.008
1995 0.010
1996 0.009
1997 0.008
1998 0.009
1999 0.001
2000 0.002
2001 0.002
2002 0.001
2003 0.002
2004 0.001
2005 0.001
2006 0.002
2007 0.001
2008 0.002
2009 0.002
2010 0.002
2011 0.002
2012 0.002
2013 0.002
2014 0.002
2015 0.002
2016 0.001
2017 0.002
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