Upper middle income - Natural gas rents (% of GDP)

Natural gas rents (% of GDP) in Upper middle income was 0.378 as of 2019. Its highest value over the past 49 years was 0.869 in 2008, while its lowest value was 0.005 in 1973.

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 0.008
1971 0.007
1972 0.006
1973 0.005
1974 0.014
1975 0.040
1976 0.041
1977 0.032
1978 0.042
1979 0.093
1980 0.115
1981 0.062
1982 0.024
1983 0.079
1984 0.079
1985 0.087
1986 0.108
1987 0.196
1988 0.531
1989 0.557
1990 0.717
1991 0.621
1992 0.403
1993 0.412
1994 0.305
1995 0.273
1996 0.312
1997 0.285
1998 0.144
1999 0.149
2000 0.504
2001 0.828
2002 0.675
2003 0.694
2004 0.564
2005 0.525
2006 0.781
2007 0.697
2008 0.869
2009 0.729
2010 0.522
2011 0.689
2012 0.672
2013 0.612
2014 0.469
2015 0.403
2016 0.255
2017 0.336
2018 0.509
2019 0.378

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