Beyond-GDP indicators
Genuine Savings Rate
A World Bank sustainability indicator measuring the true rate of saving after accounting for investment in education, depletion of natural resources, and pollution damage.
Definition
The genuine savings rate — published by the World Bank as adjusted net savings — equals net national savings plus education expenditure, minus energy depletion, mineral depletion, net forest depletion, and carbon dioxide and particulate emission damage, expressed as a percentage of gross national income. A persistently negative rate indicates an economy running down its total capital stock.
References
official definition
Overview
What it means
Conventional saving counts only produced capital. Genuine saving asks whether a country is adding to its wealth once all forms of capital are counted: education spending builds human capital, while extracting oil, cutting forests, and emitting carbon depletes natural capital. A resource exporter can post strong GDP growth while genuinely saving nothing — or less than nothing.
How it is used
The indicator is part of the World Bank's Changing Wealth of Nations programme; analysts use it to test weak sustainability (whether natural capital losses are offset by other investment) in country diagnostics.
Why it matters
It is one of the few sustainability indicators derived from standard national accounts, giving finance ministries a routine check on whether growth is consuming the future.
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