Arab World - Oil rents (% of GDP)

Oil rents (% of GDP) in Arab World was 19.36 as of 2019. Its highest value over the past 49 years was 57.63 in 1979, while its lowest value was 12.18 in 1998.

Definition: Oil rents are the difference between the value of crude oil production at world prices and total costs of production.

Source: Estimates based on sources and methods described in "The Changing Wealth of Nations: Measuring Sustainable Development in the New Millennium" (World Bank, 2011).

See also:

Year Value
1970 12.85
1971 14.53
1972 16.88
1973 21.85
1974 48.43
1975 39.09
1976 39.44
1977 37.77
1978 34.04
1979 57.63
1980 51.45
1981 38.16
1982 24.62
1983 24.14
1984 23.65
1985 20.76
1986 13.26
1987 17.56
1988 16.51
1989 23.71
1990 24.34
1991 20.26
1992 21.01
1993 20.39
1994 18.89
1995 19.33
1996 21.97
1997 18.82
1998 12.18
1999 16.24
2000 25.26
2001 19.93
2002 19.43
2003 22.29
2004 27.56
2005 34.27
2006 34.29
2007 30.95
2008 36.16
2009 22.81
2010 27.73
2011 34.03
2012 33.08
2013 30.04
2014 26.59
2015 15.45
2016 12.99
2017 16.81
2018 21.58
2019 19.36

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.

Limitations and Exceptions: This definition of economic rent differs from that used in the System of National Accounts, where rents are a form of property income, consisting of payments to landowners by a tenant for the use of the land or payments to the owners of subsoil assets by institutional units permitting them to extract subsoil deposits.

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 world price of units of specific commodities and subtracting estimates of average unit costs of extraction or harvesting costs (including a normal return on capital). 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).

Aggregation method: Weighted average

Periodicity: Annual

Classification

Topic: Environment Indicators

Sub-Topic: Natural resources contribution to GDP