HOUSEHOLD CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURE SURVEY – REPORT AND INDICES

News: Shelved 2017-18 consumption spending survey showed inequality widening in Maharashtra

 

What's in the news?

       For urban households in Maharashtra, food costs crossed 40% of monthly spends in 2017-18, for the first time in 18 years, while the food bill for their rural counterparts shot up to almost 49% of total spending, with that figure crossing 60% for the poorest 5% of households., data from the National Statistical Office’s 2017-18 Household Consumption Expenditure Survey or HCES show.

 

Key takeaways:

       The Maharashtra government has published the State-level findings from the exercise conducted as part of the 75th round of the National Sample Survey (NSS).

 

Household Consumption Expenditure Survey:

       It aims at generating estimates of household Monthly Per Capita Consumer Expenditure (MPCE) and the distribution of households and persons over the MPCE range separately for rural and urban sectors across the country and for different socio-economic groups.

 

Conducted by: National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation.

 

Time gap: Quinquennial (every five years)

 

Coverage: Both Urban and Rural households.

 

Significance:

       It was used to arrive at estimates of poverty levels in different parts of the country.

       It is used to review economic indicators like the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), since 2011–12.

       It will include separate data sets for rural and urban parts, and also splice spending patterns for each State and Union Territory, as well as different socio–economic groups.

       The results of the Survey are also utilized for updating the consumption basket and revise the base for the Consumer Price Index (CPI) used to measure inflation experienced on the ground by households.