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Measuring Saving Rates in New Zealand: An Update

Appendix I: Adjusting saving for investment items

Certain items of expenditure may provide a stream of benefits over time, therefore maybe be more appropriately classified as an asset rather than an expense. This involves removing the expenditure item from current consumption, and reclassifying it as an asset. Thus gross saving is increased. Net saving is different from gross saving, in that depreciation is subtracted. Subtracting cumulative depreciation, or equivalently entering this as an expense, distributed over the useful life of the asset, results in a net measure of saving. Now the expense is incurred in the period in which the economic benefit may be thought to be received. This flow of services is often assumed to be either constant or declining in an exponential fashion until the asset is depleted. We have used a double-declining balance method. Net measures of saving tend to be substantially lower than the associated gross saving rate, owing to this subtraction of depreciation. For example, the net investment in durables is relative small; however the gross impact on saving in 2011 as calculated here would be approximately 8 percentage points.

Appendix Table I.1 - Adjustments to net national saving
Net national saving rate Net govt. Health Net govt. Education Net private health Net private education Net consumer durables Net R&D Inflation adjustment Adjusted net national saving
  (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9)
1996 4.0% 2.0% 2.6% 0.2% 0.3% 1.7% 0.6% 2.6% 14.0%
1997 2.8% 2.0% 2.7% 0.2% 0.3% 1.9% 0.6% 1.2% 11.6%
1998 2.8% 2.1% 2.8% 0.2% 0.3% 1.0% 0.6% 0.7% 10.5%
1999 2.1% 2.3% 2.7% 0.2% 0.2% 1.1% 0.5% 1.2% 10.3%
2000 1.7% 2.2% 2.8% 0.2% 0.2% 1.4% 0.5% -0.3% 8.7%
2001 3.5% 2.2% 2.8% 0.3% 0.2% 0.8% 0.5% 1.2% 11.6%
2002 5.7% 2.2% 2.7% 0.3% 0.2% 1.0% 0.5% 2.0% 14.7%
2003 5.3% 2.2% 2.9% 0.3% 0.2% 1.5% 0.5% 1.6% 14.4%
2004 5.6% 2.2% 2.9% 0.4% 0.1% 1.7% 0.5% 0.9% 14.4%
2005 4.8% 2.3% 2.8% 0.4% 0.1% 1.5% 0.5% 1.5% 13.9%
2006 2.3% 2.3% 3.7% 0.4% 0.1% 1.6% 0.5% 2.0% 12.9%
2007 0.9% 2.4% 2.9% 0.3% 0.1% 1.2% 0.5% 2.9% 11.3%
2008 2.1% 2.5% 2.7% 0.3% 0.1% 1.1% 0.5% 1.5% 10.8%
2009 -1.1% 2.7% 3.5% 0.3% 0.2% 0.3% 0.5% 3.3% 9.7%
2010 1.7% 2.8% 3.4% 0.3% 0.2% 0.4% 0.5% 1.5% 10.7%
2011 1.4% 2.7% 3.0% 0.3% 0.2% 0.4% 0.5% 1.1% 9.7%

(1) 1996-2011: Statistics New Zealand: SNDA.SG00NAC00B08

(2) 1996-2011: NZ Treasury: Fiscal time series

(3) 1996-2011: NZ Treasury: Fiscal time series

(4) 1996-2008: Ministry of Health: Expenditure and Trends, Appendix 3 (HES)
2010: HES.

(5) 2001, 2007, 2010:HES, authors' estimates.

(6) 1996-2011: Statistics New Zealand:

(7) 1996-2011: (bi-annually), GERD: Research and Development survey

Note: Values in time periods where no data was available have been estimated.

Appendix Table I.2 - Adjustments to net household saving
Net household
saving rate
Net private health Net private education Net consumer durables Inflation adjustment Adjusted household
saving rate
  (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)
1996 -2.6% 0.4% 0.5% 3.1% 1% 2.5%
1997 -2.6% 0.3% 0.5% 3.3% 1% 2.1%
1998 -2.1% 0.4% 0.4% 1.7% 0% 0.8%
1999 -3.2% 0.4% 0.4% 1.8% 1% 0.1%
2000 1.0% 0.4% 0.4% 2.4% 0% 4.0%
2001 -4.7% 0.6% 0.4% 1.5% 1% -1.4%
2002 -3.9% 0.6% 0.3% 1.9% 2% 0.4%
2003 -9.7% 0.5% 0.3% 2.9% 2% -4.3%
2004 -7.6% 0.8% 0.3% 3.1% 1% -2.5%
2005 -6.2% 0.8% 0.2% 2.7% 2% -0.7%
2006 -8.2% 0.8% 0.2% 2.9% 2% -2.0%
2007 -7.1% 0.5% 0.2% 2.2% 3% -0.8%
2008 -3.6% 0.5% 0.3% 2.1% 2% 0.7%
2009 -4.1% 0.5% 0.4% 0.5% 3% 0.4%
2010 -0.5% 0.5% 0.4% 0.6% 1% 2.4%
2011 0.2% 0.5% 0.4% 0.7% 1% 2.9%

Sources: see previous page, and Appendix B.

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