Australia | 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
Commonwealth of Australia
Records
63
Source
Australia | Mineral rents (% of GDP)
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966
1967
1968
1969
1970 1.47068573
1971 1.4125158
1972 1.31501599
1973 1.84752225
1974 2.09247496
1975 1.62895258
1976 1.95089766
1977 2.01708223
1978 1.52027116
1979 1.7790678
1980 1.99293088
1981 1.3465764
1982 1.33777652
1983 1.24589068
1984 1.34747701
1985 1.5185708
1986 1.29155906
1987 1.41786288
1988 2.81149219
1989 1.51430115
1990 1.50973725
1991 1.26860233
1992 1.19653198
1993 0.93808861
1994 0.94429954
1995 0.8622922
1996 0.8236615
1997 0.76971229
1998 1.02491378
1999 0.90181139
2000 0.94408375
2001 1.14917514
2002 1.0272497
2003 0.75689793
2004 0.90292501
2005 1.903139
2006 2.80480565
2007 4.25348977
2008 4.12640451
2009 2.3762922
2010 4.85534836
2011 5.02848004
2012 3.04517249
2013 3.55343966
2014 2.91578772
2015 1.85179092
2016 2.58843372
2017 3.18587488
2018 2.86105597
2019 3.31748181
2020 4.08804723
2021 10.46577549
2022

Australia | 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
Commonwealth of Australia
Records
63
Source