Spain - Coal rents (% of GDP)

Coal rents (% of GDP) in Spain was 0.001 as of 2019. Its highest value over the past 49 years was 0.260 in 1982, while its lowest value was 0.000 in 1999.

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 0.018
1971 0.021
1972 0.016
1973 0.013
1974 0.022
1975 0.084
1976 0.092
1977 0.095
1978 0.061
1979 0.043
1980 0.070
1981 0.204
1982 0.260
1983 0.128
1984 0.064
1985 0.085
1986 0.022
1987 0.005
1988 0.006
1989 0.005
1990 0.019
1991 0.015
1992 0.008
1993 0.001
1994 0.002
1995 0.006
1996 0.004
1997 0.002
1998 0.002
1999 0.000
2000 0.004
2001 0.012
2002 0.004
2003 0.003
2004 0.021
2005 0.013
2006 0.012
2007 0.015
2008 0.032
2009 0.010
2010 0.017
2011 0.016
2012 0.008
2013 0.003
2014 0.003
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