St. Lucia - Forest rents (% of GDP)

Forest rents (% of GDP) in St. Lucia was 0.011 as of 2019. Its highest value over the past 39 years was 0.105 in 1982, while its lowest value was 0.005 in 1989.

Definition: Forest rents are roundwood harvest times the product of average prices and a region-specific rental rate.

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 0.055
1981 0.045
1982 0.105
1983 0.033
1984 0.016
1985 0.009
1986 0.007
1987 0.007
1988 0.006
1989 0.005
1990 0.015
1991 0.017
1992 0.015
1993 0.011
1994 0.013
1995 0.016
1996 0.011
1997 0.016
1998 0.013
1999 0.010
2000 0.010
2001 0.011
2002 0.010
2003 0.010
2004 0.009
2005 0.008
2006 0.011
2007 0.011
2008 0.011
2009 0.010
2010 0.021
2011 0.017
2012 0.016
2013 0.019
2014 0.025
2015 0.019
2016 0.024
2017 0.019
2018 0.012
2019 0.011

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