Open full sized image
Old savings passbook from the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, issued 1977.
John Rotenstein
saving, process of setting aside a portion of current income for future use, or the flow of resources accumulated in this way over a given period of time. Saving may take the form of increases in bank deposits, purchases of securities, or increased cash holdings. The extent to which individuals save is affected by their preferences for future over present consumption, their expectations of future income, and to some extent by the rate of interest.
There are two ways for an individual to measure his saving for a given accounting period. One is to estimate his income and subtract his current expenditures, the difference being his saving. The alternative is to examine his balance sheet (his property and his debts) at the beginning and end of the period and measure the increase in net worth, which reflects his saving.
Total national saving is measured as the excess of national income over consumption and taxes and is the same as national investment, or the excess of net national product over the parts of the product made up of consumption goods and services and items bought by government expenditures. Thus, in national income accounts, saving is always equal to investment. An alternative measure of saving is the estimated change in total net worth over a period of time.
Saving is important to the economic progress of a country because of its relation to investment. If there is to be an increase in productive wealth, some individuals must be willing to abstain from consuming their entire income. Progress is not dependent on saving alone; there must also be individuals willing to invest and thereby increase productive capacity.
This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.
