Africa Western and Central | Mineral rents (% of GDP)
Mineral rents are the difference between the value of production for a stock of minerals at world prices and their total costs of production. Minerals included in the calculation are tin, gold, lead, zinc, iron, copper, nickel, silver, bauxite, and phosphate. 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. 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 price of units of specific commodities and subtracting estimates of average unit costs of extraction or harvesting costs. 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).
Publisher
The World Bank
Origin
Africa Western and Central
Records
63
Source
Africa Western and Central | Mineral rents (% of GDP)
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966
1967
1968
1969
0.20914274 1970
0.23323633 1971
0.22245642 1972
0.23089437 1973
0.6370298 1974
0.45312589 1975
0.29332759 1976
0.50670051 1977
0.18803758 1978
0.23440968 1979
0.28856918 1980
0.1253429 1981
0.11770476 1982
0.14273914 1983
0.16125276 1984
0.1660596 1985
0.47197596 1986
0.40645409 1987
0.44230696 1988
0.57949292 1989
0.47406866 1990
0.48737158 1991
0.43827029 1992
0.38271592 1993
0.40207902 1994
0.13727048 1995
0.15922305 1996
0.137783 1997
0.12296267 1998
0.21079198 1999
0.25955151 2000
0.27764985 2001
0.27912064 2002
0.12389477 2003
0.15723196 2004
0.27921513 2005
0.41779601 2006
0.55366102 2007
0.58577879 2008
0.62878306 2009
0.77897422 2010
1.07740189 2011
0.96106956 2012
0.68774865 2013
0.5256711 2014
0.39876029 2015
0.53039702 2016
0.65749404 2017
0.58169429 2018
0.45417875 2019
0.58243782 2020
1.72095992 2021
2022
Africa Western and Central | Mineral rents (% of GDP)
Mineral rents are the difference between the value of production for a stock of minerals at world prices and their total costs of production. Minerals included in the calculation are tin, gold, lead, zinc, iron, copper, nickel, silver, bauxite, and phosphate. 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. 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 price of units of specific commodities and subtracting estimates of average unit costs of extraction or harvesting costs. 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).
Publisher
The World Bank
Origin
Africa Western and Central
Records
63
Source