Low income - Coal rents (% of GDP)

Coal rents (% of GDP) in Low income was 0.161 as of 2019. Its highest value over the past 39 years was 0.191 in 2018, while its lowest value was 0.001 in 2000.

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
1980 0.010
1981 0.014
1982 0.010
1983 0.009
1984 0.008
1985 0.009
1986 0.005
1987 0.004
1988 0.006
1989 0.007
1990 0.007
1991 0.005
1992 0.004
1993 0.004
1994 0.003
1995 0.004
1996 0.003
1997 0.002
1998 0.002
1999 0.001
2000 0.001
2001 0.001
2002 0.001
2003 0.001
2004 0.003
2005 0.002
2006 0.002
2007 0.004
2011 0.057
2012 0.113
2013 0.088
2014 0.076
2015 0.062
2016 0.074
2017 0.184
2018 0.191
2019 0.161

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