Tunisia - Natural gas rents (% of GDP)

Natural gas rents (% of GDP) in Tunisia was 0.189 as of 2019. Its highest value over the past 49 years was 0.693 in 2012, while its lowest value was 0.009 in 1971.

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 0.011
1971 0.009
1972 0.010
1973 0.018
1974 0.035
1975 0.083
1976 0.097
1977 0.120
1978 0.115
1979 0.156
1980 0.112
1981 0.063
1982 0.013
1983 0.097
1984 0.088
1985 0.084
1986 0.070
1987 0.041
1988 0.033
1989 0.035
1990 0.034
1991 0.022
1992 0.024
1993 0.030
1994 0.021
1995 0.020
1996 0.060
1997 0.133
1998 0.113
1999 0.095
2000 0.197
2001 0.268
2002 0.197
2003 0.184
2004 0.194
2005 0.310
2006 0.357
2007 0.313
2008 0.412
2009 0.437
2010 0.437
2011 0.658
2012 0.693
2013 0.671
2014 0.564
2015 0.323
2016 0.181
2017 0.198
2018 0.265
2019 0.189

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