Korea - Mineral rents (% of GDP)

Mineral rents (% of GDP) in Korea was 0.082 as of 2019. Its highest value over the past 49 years was 0.182 in 1974, while its lowest value was 0.000 in 2004.

Definition: 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.

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 0.042
1971 0.029
1972 0.028
1973 0.166
1974 0.182
1975 0.037
1976 0.031
1977 0.023
1978 0.012
1979 0.019
1980 0.045
1981 0.020
1982 0.020
1983 0.023
1984 0.018
1985 0.015
1986 0.015
1987 0.025
1988 0.063
1989 0.055
1990 0.024
1991 0.004
1992 0.004
1993 0.001
1994 0.003
1995 0.010
1996 0.008
1997 0.008
1998 0.017
1999 0.010
2000 0.009
2001 0.010
2002 0.011
2003 0.013
2004 0.000
2005 0.002
2006 0.002
2007 0.002
2008 0.004
2009 0.002
2010 0.005
2011 0.005
2012 0.021
2013 0.004
2014 0.002
2015 0.001
2016 0.001
2017 0.001
2018 0.001
2019 0.082

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