Following the National Statistics Office’s announcement that Vietnam’s economic growth reached 8.02% in 2025, economic forecasts for 2026—particularly the issue of “savings”—have drawn considerable attention from economists and policymakers. In this article, the authors offer an additional perspective on this important factor through the lens of the United Nations System of National Accounts (SNA) and macroeconomic policy. The strategic role of savings in economic growth When speaking about savings and emphasizing its importance, President Ho Chi Minh famously stated that “saving is a national policy.” In his recent article Practicing Thrift – Awareness and Culture, Dr. Nguyen Si Dung argues that saving is not only a core cultural virtue of the Vietnamese people but also a principle of development and a measure of national governance capacity. The issue of savings has also been especially emphasized by Party General Secretary To Lam, who has described savings as “a pillar on the path to prosperity.” Under the SNA framework, savings constitute the source of long-term investment and are expressed through the following relationship: Investment (I) = Savings (S) + Net capital transfers + Net borrowing/lending From the source side: Savings = GDP + Net primary income + Net current transfers (mainly remittances) […]