Euro area - Total natural resources rents (% of GDP)

Total natural resources rents (% of GDP) in Euro area was 0.078 as of 2019. Its highest value over the past 49 years was 0.556 in 1981, while its lowest value was 0.062 in 1999.

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:

1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
2005
2010
2015
2020
0.000
0.100
0.200
0.300
0.400
0.500
0.600
0.700
Year Value
1970 0.205
1971 0.193
1972 0.175
1973 0.215
1974 0.347
1975 0.478
1976 0.509
1977 0.434
1978 0.350
1979 0.420
1980 0.489
1981 0.556
1982 0.489
1983 0.453
1984 0.403
1985 0.423
1986 0.220
1987 0.150
1988 0.159
1989 0.190
1990 0.188
1991 0.127
1992 0.099
1993 0.099
1994 0.089
1995 0.092
1996 0.101
1997 0.095
1998 0.063
1999 0.062
2000 0.124
2001 0.156
2002 0.128
2003 0.115
2004 0.123
2005 0.124
2006 0.168
2007 0.171
2008 0.233
2009 0.159
2010 0.186
2011 0.226
2012 0.215
2013 0.189
2014 0.146
2015 0.103
2016 0.084
2017 0.097
2018 0.116
2019 0.078

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