Portugal - Mineral rents (% of GDP)

Mineral rents (% of GDP) in Portugal was 0.039 as of 2019. Its highest value over the past 49 years was 0.174 in 2006, while its lowest value was 0.000 in 2016.

Definition: Mineral rents are the difference between the value of production for a stock of minerals at world prices and their total costs of production. Minerals included in the calculation are tin, gold, lead, zinc, iron, copper, nickel, silver, bauxite, and phosphate.

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 0.040
1971 0.021
1972 0.014
1973 0.027
1974 0.027
1975 0.003
1976 0.005
1977 0.006
1978 0.005
1979 0.013
1980 0.022
1981 0.010
1982 0.006
1983 0.007
1984 0.005
1985 0.003
1986 0.003
1987 0.003
1988 0.008
1989 0.136
1990 0.108
1991 0.169
1992 0.091
1993 0.056
1994 0.108
1995 0.137
1996 0.034
1997 0.033
1998 0.002
1999 0.000
2000 0.000
2001 0.000
2002 0.003
2003 0.002
2004 0.063
2005 0.078
2006 0.174
2007 0.152
2008 0.100
2009 0.000
2010 0.083
2011 0.055
2012 0.071
2013 0.019
2014 0.008
2015 0.001
2016 0.000
2017 0.037
2018 0.034
2019 0.039

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