Austria - Total natural resources rents (% of GDP)

Total natural resources rents (% of GDP) in Austria was 0.133 as of 2019. Its highest value over the past 49 years was 0.640 in 1980, while its lowest value was 0.093 in 1998.

Definition: Total natural resources rents are the sum of oil rents, natural gas rents, coal rents (hard and soft), mineral rents, and forest rents.

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 0.377
1971 0.340
1972 0.330
1973 0.409
1974 0.631
1975 0.588
1976 0.612
1977 0.488
1978 0.454
1979 0.618
1980 0.640
1981 0.561
1982 0.431
1983 0.436
1984 0.421
1985 0.425
1986 0.243
1987 0.205
1988 0.211
1989 0.271
1990 0.255
1991 0.166
1992 0.130
1993 0.124
1994 0.121
1995 0.115
1996 0.138
1997 0.123
1998 0.093
1999 0.096
2000 0.155
2001 0.160
2002 0.161
2003 0.157
2004 0.132
2005 0.151
2006 0.195
2007 0.222
2008 0.251
2009 0.169
2010 0.226
2011 0.271
2012 0.254
2013 0.224
2014 0.189
2015 0.135
2016 0.117
2017 0.127
2018 0.155
2019 0.133

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