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
0.95626772 1971
0.99911821 1972
0.95671429 1973
1.42395201 1974
2.84477924 1975
3.43202831 1976
3.61339844 1977
3.22263648 1978
3.04911662 1979
3.14451028 1980
4.83990018 1981
5.92612865 1982
3.56972467 1983
3.66691447 1984
5.5999705 1985
3.94891459 1986
2.16956692 1987
2.55601759 1988
2.84395572 1989
2.57214267 1990
2.37982668 1991
1.92635118 1992
1.51673418 1993
1.54405105 1994
2.06186052 1995
1.92415607 1996
1.61619662 1997
1.32809234 1998
0.89604528 1999
1.27706431 2000
2.465694 2001
1.67772716 2002
1.3545365 2003
3.22676492 2004
2.31202263 2005
2.39588417 2006
3.11780745 2007
7.24773932 2008
2.33293574 2009
3.41376035 2010
3.94333344 2011
2.88108021 2012
2.49703207 2013
1.94751834 2014
1.49327522 2015
1.80360545 2016
2.06162695 2017
2.27987953 2018
1.75865466 2019
1.61371271 2020
2.44110583 2021
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