Venezuela - Total natural resources rents (% of GDP)

Total natural resources rents (% of GDP) in Venezuela was 11.84 as of 2014. Its highest value over the past 44 years was 38.09 in 1979, while its lowest value was 7.74 in 1970.

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 7.74
1971 9.28
1972 8.93
1973 12.38
1974 35.95
1975 26.31
1976 24.48
1977 17.88
1978 17.10
1979 38.09
1980 35.97
1981 26.10
1982 14.63
1983 18.20
1984 19.85
1985 17.53
1986 8.94
1987 17.53
1988 11.01
1989 22.62
1990 31.26
1991 18.39
1992 17.38
1993 17.43
1994 17.39
1995 15.37
1996 23.66
1997 17.75
1998 9.20
1999 13.16
2000 20.35
2001 14.61
2002 19.30
2003 24.30
2004 27.79
2005 32.28
2006 30.78
2007 24.98
2008 24.51
2009 11.07
2010 12.43
2011 22.85
2012 17.91
2013 17.22
2014 11.84

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