Household Savings Rate in National Accounts and Household Surveys in Japan

Following the methodology developed in our previous papers (Unayama and Ohno, 2017a and 2017b), we construct household income and expenditure data that are consistent with macro data, or national accounts, yet are based on micro data. We improve the methodology and update to the latest data of the 2014 National Survey of Family Income and Expenditure (NSFIE). According to the constructed data, the decreasing trend in the macro savings rate has been induced by the elderly. We further observe that while consumption has been stable over birth cohorts, disposable income has become lower for later generations. This trend was brought by the lower interest income associated with the zero interest policy and the lower public pension income. Since the lower public pension benefits are a result of population aging given the pay-as-you-go finance system, the lower savings rate is regarded as a result of population aging.