Switzerland - Total natural resources rents (% of GDP)

Total natural resources rents (% of GDP) in Switzerland was 0.009 as of 2019. Its highest value over the past 49 years was 0.073 in 1970, while its lowest value was 0.009 in 2019.

Definition: Total natural resources rents are the sum of oil rents, natural gas rents, coal rents (hard and soft), mineral rents, and forest rents.

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 0.073
1971 0.058
1972 0.054
1973 0.061
1974 0.069
1975 0.060
1976 0.054
1977 0.059
1978 0.052
1979 0.051
1980 0.060
1981 0.054
1982 0.047
1983 0.039
1984 0.044
1985 0.041
1986 0.038
1987 0.031
1988 0.029
1989 0.034
1990 0.040
1991 0.022
1992 0.021
1993 0.021
1994 0.020
1995 0.020
1996 0.019
1997 0.020
1998 0.018
1999 0.017
2000 0.035
2001 0.021
2002 0.018
2003 0.018
2004 0.014
2005 0.015
2006 0.017
2007 0.019
2008 0.017
2009 0.015
2010 0.015
2011 0.013
2012 0.011
2013 0.012
2014 0.013
2015 0.011
2016 0.011
2017 0.010
2018 0.013
2019 0.009

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