OECD members - Coal rents (% of GDP)

Coal rents (% of GDP) in OECD members was 0.082 as of 2019. Its highest value over the past 49 years was 0.468 in 1982, while its lowest value was 0.027 in 1994.

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
1970 0.070
1971 0.074
1972 0.069
1973 0.069
1974 0.137
1975 0.355
1976 0.369
1977 0.337
1978 0.234
1979 0.215
1980 0.264
1981 0.424
1982 0.468
1983 0.257
1984 0.200
1985 0.208
1986 0.111
1987 0.052
1988 0.062
1989 0.084
1990 0.101
1991 0.088
1992 0.064
1993 0.033
1994 0.027
1995 0.069
1996 0.073
1997 0.072
1998 0.067
1999 0.050
2000 0.060
2001 0.103
2002 0.070
2003 0.064
2004 0.153
2005 0.132
2006 0.139
2007 0.125
2008 0.372
2009 0.172
2010 0.252
2011 0.312
2012 0.190
2013 0.138
2014 0.114
2015 0.083
2016 0.078
2017 0.104
2018 0.111
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