Zambia - Coal rents (% of GDP)

Coal rents (% of GDP) in Zambia was 0.036 as of 2019. Its highest value over the past 48 years was 0.574 in 1982, while its lowest value was 0.000 in 2009.

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 0.172
1972 0.202
1973 0.206
1974 0.224
1975 0.520
1976 0.476
1977 0.493
1978 0.404
1979 0.281
1980 0.366
1981 0.478
1982 0.574
1983 0.331
1984 0.351
1985 0.471
1986 0.540
1987 0.240
1988 0.211
1989 0.182
1990 0.216
1991 0.187
1992 0.217
1993 0.120
1994 0.055
1995 0.071
1996 0.056
1997 0.023
1998 0.050
1999 0.035
2000 0.049
2001 0.078
2002 0.053
2003 0.054
2004 0.068
2005 0.051
2006 0.016
2007 0.004
2008 0.001
2009 0.000
2010 0.000
2011 0.000
2012 0.023
2013 0.021
2014 0.017
2015 0.015
2016 0.035
2017 0.092
2018 0.044
2019 0.036

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