World - Coal rents (% of GDP)

Coal rents (% of GDP) in World was 0.180 as of 2019. Its highest value over the past 49 years was 0.819 in 2008, while its lowest value was 0.045 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 0.078
1972 0.074
1973 0.074
1974 0.156
1975 0.419
1976 0.429
1977 0.402
1978 0.295
1979 0.268
1980 0.342
1981 0.552
1982 0.618
1983 0.352
1984 0.276
1985 0.297
1986 0.160
1987 0.068
1988 0.093
1989 0.127
1990 0.163
1991 0.142
1992 0.102
1993 0.055
1994 0.045
1995 0.097
1996 0.090
1997 0.084
1998 0.079
1999 0.057
2000 0.073
2001 0.149
2002 0.089
2003 0.083
2004 0.304
2005 0.252
2006 0.267
2007 0.297
2008 0.819
2009 0.353
2010 0.554
2011 0.732
2012 0.427
2013 0.295
2014 0.236
2015 0.158
2016 0.163
2017 0.215
2018 0.241
2019 0.180

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