Government initiates work on consumer spending survey
Tags: Economy/Finance National News
The Centre has started the process of conducting the five-year Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) this month.
Important facts
The questionnaire for the survey has been modified to capture data on items received free of cost from welfare programs of the government.
Field work for the survey, which for the first time will involve three visits in a year to assess spending patterns in selected households, will begin soon.
The survey was last conducted in 2017-18, but its findings were not published, citing data quality concerns.
Therefore, the last official publicly available estimates on consumer spending are from the 2011-12 survey.
What is the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES)?
CES is traditionally a quinquennial survey conducted by the government’s National Sample Survey Office (NSSO).
It is designed to collect information about consumption expenditure patterns of urban and rural households across the country.
The data collected in this survey reveals the average expenditure on goods (food and non-food) and services and helps in estimating the household Monthly per Capita Consumer Expenditure (MPCE).
The survey is conducted between July and June and this year's exercise is expected to be completed by June 2023.
Need of CES
There is no official estimate of India's per capita household expenditure.
It provides separate data sets for rural and urban areas, and different spending patterns for each state and union territory, as well as for different socio-economic groups.
It also helps to calculate the demand dynamics of the economy.
Please Rate this article, so that we can improve the quality for you -