IDA blend - Coal rents (% of GDP)

Coal rents (% of GDP) in IDA blend was 0.023 as of 2019. Its highest value over the past 48 years was 0.144 in 1975, while its lowest value was 0.019 in 2016.

Definition: Coal rents are the difference between the value of both hard and soft coal production at world prices and their 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
1971 0.068
1972 0.060
1973 0.074
1974 0.090
1975 0.144
1976 0.139
1977 0.128
1978 0.110
1979 0.091
1980 0.092
1981 0.063
1982 0.075
1983 0.062
1984 0.062
1985 0.079
1986 0.075
1987 0.066
1988 0.081
1989 0.101
1990 0.114
1991 0.122
1992 0.102
1993 0.074
1994 0.069
1995 0.087
1996 0.067
1997 0.050
1998 0.043
1999 0.032
2000 0.037
2001 0.064
2002 0.038
2003 0.033
2004 0.085
2005 0.068
2006 0.054
2007 0.064
2008 0.110
2009 0.047
2010 0.065
2011 0.076
2012 0.041
2013 0.030
2014 0.031
2015 0.022
2016 0.019
2017 0.029
2018 0.031
2019 0.023

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