New Zealand - Natural gas rents (% of GDP)

Natural gas rents (% of GDP) in New Zealand was 0.264 as of 2019. Its highest value over the past 49 years was 0.404 in 2000, while its lowest value was 0.000 in 1970.

Definition: Natural gas rents are the difference between the value of natural gas production at world prices and 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 0.000
1971 0.000
1972 0.001
1973 0.000
1974 0.010
1975 0.047
1976 0.115
1977 0.161
1978 0.134
1979 0.172
1980 0.199
1981 0.078
1982 0.018
1983 0.093
1984 0.164
1985 0.231
1986 0.345
1987 0.174
1988 0.132
1989 0.166
1990 0.255
1991 0.205
1992 0.161
1993 0.153
1994 0.159
1995 0.142
1996 0.183
1997 0.201
1998 0.134
1999 0.190
2000 0.404
2001 0.382
2002 0.264
2003 0.199
2004 0.188
2005 0.185
2006 0.206
2007 0.199
2008 0.249
2009 0.290
2010 0.222
2011 0.230
2012 0.245
2013 0.216
2014 0.261
2015 0.331
2016 0.204
2017 0.213
2018 0.334
2019 0.264

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