New Zealand - Coal rents (% of GDP)

Coal rents (% of GDP) in New Zealand was 0.028 as of 2019. Its highest value over the past 49 years was 0.320 in 2008, while its lowest value was 0.004 in 1970.

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
1970 0.004
1971 0.004
1972 0.004
1973 0.006
1974 0.051
1975 0.180
1976 0.178
1977 0.153
1978 0.093
1979 0.070
1980 0.126
1981 0.214
1982 0.234
1983 0.139
1984 0.119
1985 0.115
1986 0.052
1987 0.011
1988 0.020
1989 0.038
1990 0.039
1991 0.040
1992 0.034
1993 0.018
1994 0.008
1995 0.023
1996 0.017
1997 0.014
1998 0.021
1999 0.012
2000 0.027
2001 0.069
2002 0.050
2003 0.028
2004 0.081
2005 0.103
2006 0.129
2007 0.070
2008 0.320
2009 0.155
2010 0.208
2011 0.247
2012 0.125
2013 0.068
2014 0.042
2015 0.023
2016 0.022
2017 0.029
2018 0.035
2019 0.028

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