South Africa | 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
Republic of South Africa
Records
63
Source
South Africa | Coal rents (% of GDP)
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966
1967
1968
1969
1970
1971 0.95626772
1972 0.99911821
1973 0.95671429
1974 1.42395201
1975 2.84477924
1976 3.43202831
1977 3.61339844
1978 3.22263648
1979 3.04911662
1980 3.14451028
1981 4.83990018
1982 5.92612865
1983 3.56972467
1984 3.66691447
1985 5.5999705
1986 3.94891459
1987 2.16956692
1988 2.55601759
1989 2.84395572
1990 2.57214267
1991 2.37982668
1992 1.92635118
1993 1.51673418
1994 1.54405105
1995 2.06186052
1996 1.92415607
1997 1.61619662
1998 1.32809234
1999 0.89604528
2000 1.27706431
2001 2.465694
2002 1.67772716
2003 1.3545365
2004 3.22676492
2005 2.31202263
2006 2.39588417
2007 3.11780745
2008 7.24773932
2009 2.33293574
2010 3.41376035
2011 3.94333344
2012 2.88108021
2013 2.49703207
2014 1.94751834
2015 1.49327522
2016 1.80360545
2017 2.06162695
2018 2.27987953
2019 1.75865466
2020 1.61371271
2021 2.44110583
2022

South Africa | 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
Republic of South Africa
Records
63
Source