Least developed countries: UN classification | Coal rents (% of GDP)

Coal rents are the difference between the value of both hard and soft coal production at world prices and their total costs of production. 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
Least developed countries: UN classification
Records
63
Source
Least developed countries: UN classification | Coal rents (% of GDP)
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966
1967
1968
1969
1970
1971
1972
1973
0.02462499 1974
0.03650348 1975
1976
1977
1978
0.02457555 1979
0.13272101 1980
0.14655402 1981
0.18157232 1982
0.18912746 1983
0.13364132 1984
0.11687844 1985
0.07861672 1986
0.05236785 1987
0.03754372 1988
0.05070871 1989
0.04605115 1990
0.04037548 1991
0.04292074 1992
0.03314119 1993
0.02552489 1994
0.03168624 1995
0.03379742 1996
0.03162765 1997
0.03199238 1998
0.02286483 1999
0.02039616 2000
0.02971673 2001
0.0253367 2002
0.02092962 2003
0.03139001 2004
0.04450313 2005
0.04539605 2006
0.03805869 2007
0.09225553 2008
0.04734559 2009
0.06265476 2010
0.10569894 2011
0.08067595 2012
0.05943672 2013
0.05011992 2014
0.03661945 2015
0.03937428 2016
0.08067132 2017
0.11287179 2018
0.06703476 2019
0.03549594 2020
0.07022483 2021
2022

Least developed countries: UN classification | Coal rents (% of GDP)

Coal rents are the difference between the value of both hard and soft coal production at world prices and their total costs of production. 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
Least developed countries: UN classification
Records
63
Source