RSSHousehold Saving Rates for Selected Countries
Household saving is the primary domestic source of funds to finance capital investment, which is a major stimulus for long-term economic growth. As the chart indicates, household saving rates vary a great deal between countries. This is partly due to the extent to which old-age pensions are funded by government rather than through personal saving and the extent to which governments provide insurance against sickness and unemployment. The age composition of the population is also relevant because the elderly tend to deplete financial assets acquired during their working years, so that a country with a high share of retired persons will usually have a low savings rate.
Over the period covered in the table, saving rates have been stable or rising in France, Austria, Italy, Norway and Portugal but have been falling in the United States, Canada, Japan and Australia. The saving rate in the United States is particularly troubling when the amount of Social Security and Medicare payments are taken into account. That is, without these payments, seniors would use up their savings at a faster rate leaving the U.S. saving rate even lower—possibly even negative—than it is at this time (0.5%).
36 Responses to “Household Saving Rates for Selected Countries”
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September 30th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Sharp edge you sound like the typical american”tired”. believe it or not you helped to put us in this situation, with the help of me and every other american in this country. We as americans dont demand more. I feel for you Sharp Edge, i too dont make enough to support my family, when i told my boss all he could say is that the company does not have the money. We cant change the past and playing the blame game will not help us either. what we must do is change, change today, and change NOW. we must be proactive about being selective with the people we spend our money with. we have to be ethical when all around us are theives. for example: i have not shopped at walmart for 4 years. since i found out that they treat their employees like crap, buy inferior products, and force american companies out of bussiness like vlasic pickles(http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/walmart.html). people used to ridicule me and tell me that i am not hurting walmart, i would just smile and reply “yeah, but im sure as hell not helping them”. most of those people finally saw what i was talking about and have since stopped shopping there. to be totaly honest i went back to the method my grandmother used to use, i would gather all of the sales papers of the local grocers and find the things that i needed on sale. i would only buy those things needed first and usually in bulk. eventually i noticed that i was saving half of what i used to spend on food in walmart. then i noticed that i mostly got the buy one get one free items (something walmart does not offer)
not only was i saving money but i was saving other stores and keeping their employees with a job. remember that when walmart has no compitition their “low price always” will be “our price always”.
Sharp Edge, my grandfather and all of my uncles worked in a steel plant. it amazed me how that plant fueled the economy in the surrounding areas. what was beautiful and american about that plant was that for every piece of steel that anyone purchased they new they were giving not only to the steel company but to the steel workers, their families, and the economy. that plant gradually slowed production, as people retired they did not replece them. the money stoped flowing through the families. now the area that used to be alive, is now dead and resembles a ghost town.
there is not much that you can do, there is not much i can do, but together as a whole we can change this situation. we dont need a bail out package. we need a pitch in package. i will pray for you and your family Sharp Edge, and i will hope that you will do the same. you can e-mail me at Warrenpressure@yahoo.com
September 26th, 2008 at 11:33 am
Great site!
Can you possibly come up with a chart showing the savings rates by category of income? Similar to the taxes paid by income chart you have?
I hear people say that raising taxes on the wealthy would hurt our economy…How is that when they actually have the extra money to spend? Lower income does not have the extra money to spend so they just do not spend it. And with savings rates so low this not only affects now but the future as they will not have extra money for a long time until they can acheive enough in savings to be able to spend some extra money.
TRICKLE DOWN ECONOMICS DOES NOT WORK! Greedy corporations can simply pass the cost on to the consumer that mostly consists of lower income. Not fair!
I am in agreement that more laws makes things harder but We need to be able to put salary caps on these money hungry corporations with CEO’s making a killing when they have many employees making minimum wage. Like the oil companies for example…The top 5 made over 120 billion in profits and still are looking for tax breaks!
I am a union sheet metal worker and have been laid off for 12 months now. I cannot work in my field for 3 more years as I signed a contract to allow myself to get free training from the union. Why can’t we make corporations sign contracts keeping them from shipping jobs overseas or lose the ability to do business in the USA! If you want to do business in this country then keep the jobs here or GO AWAY!
SOrry for rambling. Just I have 5 kids…2 with special needs and without work I cannot support my family.
I am tired of hearing how the “bad mortgages” are a huge problem…How about getting people back to work so they can actually pay their mortgages? I was fully able to pay my mortgage until I lost my job. Now I am 3 months behind and very near losing my home. It has nothing to do with people spending more than they make like the media has everyone believing. I have 17% of my union hall currently out of work. 479 out of approx. 3,000 members not working. And the ones that are working are struggling to bring home 40 hour checks. And that is just one trade…The Carpenters, Plumbers, drywallers, masons, escavators, roofers and all the other trades linked to building new homes are also in very bad shape….WAKE UP BUSH!!! WE ARE IN A RECESSION AND HAVE BEEN FOR A LONG TIME!!!
September 10th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
Mr. Perot
My questions is, What is France doing that is different than what we do here in the United States.
How is it that they can save pretty consistently at 12%
Is there cost of living different, lower. Or is it their health care,housing,gas,food cost. Or are they at a higher Tax Rate.
Please explain ..
And with the state of the economy that it we have now, High gas prices, food prices soaring. etc.
What would you suggest the normal house hold family do different, to be able to save more when almost every dime is spent just getting by. Do we need to scale down, smaller houses, etc.
August 24th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
I have watched Mr. Perot for years and have quite a bit of respect for him. However, I wonder if he is in touch with average Joe like he thinks he is. Thats who I am … average Joe. How do we see things? You talk about saving money. That is a hard thing to do when raising a family today. We are worried about having our house paid off when we retire and living off SS and what retirement plans we are lucky enough to have now but may lose at the stroke of a pen. How can we save money when it take it all to live? When you do get ahead somthing breaks or someone gets sick. Our government allow gas companies, insurance companies, electric companies and on and on to charge too much money. That is who is taking all the money. Is that a hard thing to understand? Where are our raises? I live in WV and we are not seeing people lose homes here. We live within our means and are careful not to offend people that have less than the other guy. I guess what I am saying is that average Joe wants what Mr. Perots generation had. Why did our government let it slip away? It must be a goal to destroy the American dream. I don’t care to live in a small home and drive a used truck, but if somone does not lower prices or give us a raise, somthing has got to go and I will start with insurance premiums.
August 11th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
Again, the national savings rate mirrors my personal savings rate. But recently my consumption has been drawn way back.
How do Americans compare to these same countries in terms of consumption…or over consumption…furthermore excess consumption?
Americans, and I include myself have lived the past 10 years on borrowed money. Sources include home equity (and I am in the mortgage business), credit card and other sources of easy credit. I am hurting currently because of the credit crisis but I am not spending anywhere near what I did and I am paying cash as I go!
July 14th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
Where is the definition of what constitutes savings? What is included?
savings accounts at banks?
401K or similar vehicles for savings?
U.S. savings bonds?
Equity in a home?
How can we know what we are talking about without a definition? Approaching a serious subject without defining the terms used is, or should be, an insult to the intelligence of the public. Get serious!
In the national accounts, saving is estimated by subtracting household consumption expenditure from household disposable income.
The latter consists essentially of income from employment and from the operation of unincorporated enterprises, plus receipts of interest, dividends and social benefits minus payments of income taxes, interest and social security contributions. Note that enterprise income includes imputed rents paid by owner-occupiers of dwellings.
Household consumption expenditure consists mainly of cash outlays for consumer goods and services but it also includes the imputed expenditures that owner occupiers pay, as occupiers, to themselves as owners of their dwellings.
Households include households plus non-profit institutions serving households.
The household saving rate is calculated as the ratio of household saving to household disposable income.
Saving rates may be measured on either a net or a gross basis. Net saving rates are measured after deducting consumption of fixed capital (depreciation) in respect of assets used in enterprises operated by households and in respect of owner-occupied dwellings from saving and from the disposable income of households, so that both saving and disposable income are shown on a net basis. Sometimes, countries have difficulties in estimating consumption of fixed capital for the household sector. The international system of accounts therefore provides for both disposable income and saving to be shown on a gross basis, i.e. with both aggregates including consumption of fixed capital. All figures are shown on a net basis.
Because saving is a residual between two large aggregates - disposable income and household consumption expenditure - both of which are subject to estimation errors, estimates of savings are subject to large relative errors and revisions over time.