Household Consumption Expenditure Survey

About Household Consumption Expenditure Survey

• It is usually conducted by the National Statistical Office (NSO) every five years.
• This survey aims at generating estimates of household Monthly Per Capita Consumption Expenditure (MPCE) and its distribution separately for the rural and urban sectors of the country, for States and Union Territories, and for different socio-economic groups. 
• Highlights of the survey
  • The average monthly per capita consumption expenditure (MPCE) in Indian households rose by 33.5% since 2011-12 in urban households to ₹3,510, with rural India’s MPCE seeing a 40.42% increase over the same period to hit ₹2,008.
  • The proportion of spending on food has dropped to 46.4% for rural households from 52.9% in 2011-12, while their urban peers spent just 39.2% of their overall monthly outgoes on food compared with 42.6% incurred 11 years earlier.
  • This reduction could translate into a lower weightage for food prices in the country’s retail inflation calculations.
  • Among the States, the MPCE is the highest in Sikkim for both rural (₹7,731) and urban areas (₹12,105).
  • It is the lowest in Chhattisgarh, where it was ₹2,466 for rural households and ₹4,483 for urban household members.
• Significance: The data will play a key role in reviewing critical economic indicators, including the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), poverty levels, and the Consumer Price Inflation (CPI).

Q1) What is Wholesale Price Index?

Wholesale Price Index, or WPI, measures the changes in the prices of goods sold and traded in bulk by wholesale businesses to other businesses. Wholesale market is only for goods, one cannot buy services on a wholesale basis.It is used to track the supply and demand dynamics in industry, manufacturing and construction.

Source: After a 11-year gap, Centre discloses key consumption expenditure survey data