Vanuatu - Adjusted net savings, including particulate emission damage (current US$)

The latest value for Adjusted net savings, including particulate emission damage (current US$) in Vanuatu was 200,312,200 as of 2014. Over the past 24 years, the value for this indicator has fluctuated between 200,312,200 in 2014 and -20,390,460 in 1999.

Definition: Adjusted net savings are equal to net national savings plus education expenditure and minus energy depletion, mineral depletion, net forest depletion, and carbon dioxide and particulate emissions damage.

Source: World Bank staff estimates based on sources and methods described in "The Changing Wealth of Nations 2018: Building a Sustainable Future" (Lange et al 2018).

See also:

Year Value
1990 31,284,300
1991 25,591,570
1992 13,718,950
1993 15,075,540
1994 14,254,740
1995 14,389,320
1996 -6,359,914
1997 20,461,010
1998 -16,207,980
1999 -20,390,460
2000 -3,022,167
2001 1,765,295
2002 13,000,340
2003 16,558,090
2004 32,321,040
2005 44,196,810
2006 77,736,710
2007 90,980,460
2008 170,115,300
2009 111,007,000
2010 88,936,140
2011 106,670,700
2012 89,723,460
2013 146,134,400
2014 200,312,200

Development Relevance: How wealth changes over time is critical to understanding a country’s prospects for sustainable development. Adjusted Net Saving (ANS) was developed as an indicator to approximate the change in wealth—based on simple economic theory in which savings equals investment, and investment equals the change in wealth. ANS measures gross national savings, adjusted for gains (spending on education) and losses (consumption of fixed capital, depletion of subsoil assets and forests, pollution damages). When ANS is negative, it may indicate that wealth is being run down; when ANS is positive, it may indicate that wealth is growing.

Limitations and Exceptions: The exercise treats public education expenditures as an addition to savings. However, because of the wide variability in the effectiveness of public education expenditures, these figures cannot be construed as the value of investments in human capital. A current expenditure of $1 on education does not necessarily yield $1 of human capital. The calculation should also consider private education expenditure, but data are not available for a large number of countries. While extensive, the accounting of natural resource depletion and pollution costs still has some gaps. Key estimates missing on the resource side include the value of fossil water extracted from aquifers, net depletion of fish stocks, and depletion and degradation of soils. Important pollutants affecting human health and economic assets are also excluded.

Statistical Concept and Methodology: Adjusted net savings are derived from standard national accounting measures of gross savings by making four adjustments. First, estimates of fixed capital consumption of produced assets are deducted to obtain net savings. Second, current public expenditures on education are added to net savings (in standard national accounting these expenditures are treated as consumption). Third, estimates of the depletion of a variety of natural resources are deducted to reflect the decline in asset values associated with their extraction and harvest. And fourth, deductions are made for damages from carbon dioxide emissions and local pollution. Estimates of resource depletion are based on the "change in real wealth" method described in Hamilton and Ruta (2008), which estimates depletion as the ratio between the total value of the resource and the remaining reserve lifetime. The total value of the resource is the present value of current and future rents from resource extractions. An economic rent represents an excess return to a given factor of production. Natural resources give rise to rents because they are not produced; in contrast, for produced goods and services competitive forces will expand supply until economic profits are driven to zero. For each type of resource and each country, unit resource rents are derived by taking the difference between prices and the average unit extraction or harvest costs (including a “normal” return on capital). Unit rents are then multiplied by the physical quantity extracted or harvested to arrive at total rent. To estimate the value of the resource, rents are assumed to be constant over the life of the resource (the El Serafy approach), and the present value of the rent flow is calculated using a 4 percent discount rate.

Periodicity: Annual

Classification

Topic: Economic Policy & Debt Indicators

Sub-Topic: National accounts