South Africa | 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
Republic of South Africa
Records
63
Source
South Africa | Mineral rents (% of GDP)
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966
1967
1968
1969
0.93329118 1970
0.69757107 1971
0.66505842 1972
0.90510331 1973
2.09824666 1974
0.97280683 1975
0.94704224 1976
1.14637662 1977
0.67040113 1978
3.85490259 1979
9.59606544 1980
5.49011885 1981
4.03024153 1982
4.74083851 1983
0.8109581 1984
3.80390613 1985
3.51555074 1986
3.62462497 1987
3.27733086 1988
2.31496748 1989
1.72038051 1990
2.01761498 1991
1.3913686 1992
1.64732944 1993
1.95362022 1994
0.62955865 1995
1.22411034 1996
0.74579035 1997
0.64307689 1998
0.42208565 1999
0.70616258 2000
0.80183599 2001
1.00849021 2002
0.18770072 2003
0.34754687 2004
0.79386175 2005
1.21412691 2006
1.68097037 2007
2.50224527 2008
1.31414768 2009
2.20832165 2010
2.43339626 2011
1.93209444 2012
2.06617801 2013
1.41413205 2014
0.48468525 2015
0.90865896 2016
0.86500696 2017
0.50975602 2018
1.38576111 2019
1.42688005 2020
3.83186873 2021
2022
South Africa | 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
Republic of South Africa
Records
63
Source