Bureau of Economic Analysis

The savings portion of the account shows the sources of saving for the U.S. economy by sector: personal saving, business saving (specifically, undistributed corporate profits and wage accruals less disbursements), and government saving. The sum of each sector?s saving is net saving. Gross saving is net saving plus the consumption of fixed capital. When gross saving is equal to or larger than consumption of fixed capital, the amount of saving is sufficient to cover the aging of fixed assets.The investments portion of the account reflects the uses of that saving: Gross domestic investment (which reflects investment by private businesses and governments); capital account transactions; and net lending or net borrowing. Gross domestic investment?a measure of gross capital formation?is the purchase of new fixed assets plus the change in private inventories. Capital account transactions (net) are cash or in-kind transfer payments to the rest of the world that are linked to the acquisition or disposition of a fixed asset; they provide an indirect measure of the net acquisition of foreign fixed assets by U.S. residents less the net acquisition of U.S. fixed assets by the rest of the world.

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