Least developed countries: UN classification | 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
Least developed countries: UN classification
Records
63
Source
Least developed countries: UN classification | Mineral rents (% of GDP)
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966
1967
1968
1969
2.83264107 1970
1.70089275 1971
1.73401714 1972
3.31378293 1973
3.04346505 1974
0.9686452 1975
1.34676343 1976
1.28053754 1977
0.58497959 1978
1.07239973 1979
0.99919086 1980
0.53498227 1981
0.36049034 1982
0.46364564 1983
0.72060614 1984
0.60806343 1985
0.72905968 1986
0.83070859 1987
1.47175571 1988
1.51524404 1989
0.94957324 1990
0.29466045 1991
0.32783342 1992
0.23427725 1993
0.2293504 1994
0.14615499 1995
0.17124199 1996
0.15443323 1997
0.15037415 1998
0.1328471 1999
0.15292182 2000
0.19554081 2001
0.21908622 2002
0.16829613 2003
0.29505603 2004
0.50177666 2005
1.10649963 2006
1.0955505 2007
0.96267431 2008
0.84754354 2009
1.31373799 2010
1.70955365 2011
1.46418442 2012
1.26411822 2013
0.93166549 2014
0.57842106 2015
0.67814394 2016
0.91419239 2017
0.95156999 2018
0.59658879 2019
0.82890424 2020
3.08079705 2021
2022
Least developed countries: UN classification | 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
Least developed countries: UN classification
Records
63
Source