World | 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
World
Records
63
Source
World | Mineral rents (% of GDP)
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966
1967
1968
1969
1970 0.26006555
1971 0.18019223
1972 0.16089512
1973 0.2719111
1974 0.38648648
1975 0.21587217
1976 0.20533212
1977 0.21167093
1978 0.12102725
1979 0.19441852
1980 0.27760133
1981 0.1914811
1982 0.15310053
1983 0.16443581
1984 0.11789332
1985 0.12716791
1986 0.08880271
1987 0.1070798
1988 0.24660091
1989 0.20905451
1990 0.14770282
1991 0.11296206
1992 0.12678129
1993 0.09166065
1994 0.09910686
1995 0.10148651
1996 0.08704441
1997 0.07911555
1998 0.07804412
1999 0.070624
2000 0.07350798
2001 0.06267293
2002 0.06316945
2003 0.06255659
2004 0.10837457
2005 0.19939854
2006 0.35574903
2007 0.53699732
2008 0.56130999
2009 0.31598005
2010 0.66636454
2011 0.80699507
2012 0.48526892
2013 0.43935216
2014 0.31192663
2015 0.18313161
2016 0.21469
2017 0.27655507
2018 0.25313503
2019 0.2319184
2020 0.26023246
2021 0.77097402
2022

World | 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
World
Records
63
Source