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