Income and savings

Primary income of the private households
The primary income of the private households (including private non-profit organisations) includes the income from employment and assets, which the domestic private households obtained. Specifically, this includes compensation of employees, income from self-employment of single companies and self-employed persons (which includes compensation for assisting family members), operating surplus from the production of services from owner-occupied residential property, as well as the net investment income (including the acquisition of financial intermediation services, indirectly measured (FISIM)).

Disposable income
A household’s disposable income is obtained by adding monetary social benefits and other transfers, which private households mainly receive from the state, to the primary income, and subtracting income and property tax, social contributions and other transfers, which have to be paid by private households. Therefore, the disposable income of private households is equivalent to the income the private households can ultimately use for consumption and savings purposes.

Savings, savings rate
The predominant part of the disposable income of private households is used for consumption. The remainder of the disposable income plus the change in net equity in pension fund reserves equals the private households’ savings. The ratio of these savings to the disposable income is called the savings rate of private households.

Source: Entstehung, Verteilung und Verwendung des Bruttoinlandsprodukts in den Ländern der Bundesrepublik Deutschland 1991 bis 2013 Reihe 1, Band 5; Arbeitskreis Herausgeber: "Volkswirtschaftliche Gesamtrechnungen der Länder" im Auftrag der Statistischen Ämter der 16 Bundesländer, des Statistischen Bundesamtes und des Bürgeramtes, Statistik und Wahlen, Frankfurt a. M. (http://www.vgrdl.de/VGRdL/MethDef/definitionen.jsp)