Re: Various measeures of Personal Savings in National Accounts

[paul davidson <pdavidson@xxxxxxx>]

At 03:27 PM 01/31/2000 -0800, you wrote:
> Can anyone explain the three different values for personal
> savings (PS).  For example, in 1995
> Economic Report of the President has PS at 249.3 billion
> (Table B-30);
> Flow of Funds from the Federal Reserve has PS at 264.6
> billon (Table F.9);
> NIPA has PS at 302.4 billion.



Part of the problem is that in October 1999, the US Department of Commerce
changed the components that make up Personal Savings in NIPA.  The main
(but not only change) was adding "Government employee's contributions to
pension plans" to the personal savings catagory.  That one change moved
the  personal savings rate from approximately 0 per cent to approximately 3
per cent. It had nothing to do with statistical discrepancies.  "A Rose by
any other name...."

> This range of values seems outside the range of
> "statistical" discrepancies.  Thanks, DR
> _

Paul

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