The average propensity to save (APS), also known as the savings ratio, is an economics term that refers to the proportion of income which is saved, usually expressed for household savings as a percentage of total household disposable income. The ratio differs considerably over time and between countries. The savings ratio can be affected by (for example): the proportion of older people, as they have less motivation and capability to save; the rate of inflation, as expectations of rising prices can encourage people to spend now rather than later (monetary base/mass depreciation).
The complement is the average propensity to consume (APC).
Famous quotes containing the words average, propensity and/or save:
“Since the Civil War its six states have produced fewer political ideas, as political ideas run in the Republic, than any average county in Kansas or Nebraska.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“... there is a particular propensity in the world for people, wherever they appear in great numbers, to permit themselves collectively everything that would be forbidden them individually.”
—Robert Musil (1880–1942)
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—Philip K. Howard, U.S. lawyer. The Death of Common Sense: How Law Is Suffocating America, pp. 186-87, Random House (1994)