All-India Household Consumer Expenditure Survey

April 25, 2022
Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
Category: DPN Topics

All-India Household Consumer Expenditure Survey

Subject :Economy

Section :Fiscal policy

Context:

The All-India Household Consumer Expenditure Survey, usually conducted by the National Statistical Office (NSO) every five years, is set to resume this year after a prolonged break.

Concept :

All-India Household Consumer Expenditure Survey:

The CES is traditionally a quinquennial (recurring every five years) survey conducted by the government’s National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) that is designed to collect information on the consumption spending patterns of households across the country, both urban and rural.

Purpose:

The NSS Consumer Expenditure Survey generates estimates of household Monthly Per Capita Consumer Expenditure (MPCE) and the distribution of households and persons over the MPCE classes. It is designed to collect information regarding expenditure on consumption of goods and services (food and non-food) consumed by households. The results, after release, are also used for rebasing of the GDP and other macro-economic indicators.

Uses:

The estimates of monthly per capita consumption spending are vital in gauging the demand dynamics of the economy as well as for understanding the shifting priorities in terms of baskets of goods and services, and in assessing living standards and growth trends across multiple strata.
From helping policymakers spot and address possible structural anomalies that may cause demand to shift in a particular manner in a specific socio-economic or regional cohort of the population.
To provide pointers to producers of goods and providers of services, the CES is an invaluable analytical as well as forecasting tool. It is, in fact, used by the government in rebasing the GDP and other macro-economic indicators.

Previous surveys:

Previous survey on consumer expenditure was conducted during the period : July 2011 to June 2012.
The Government has decided not to release the results of the all-India household Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES), conducted during 2017-18, due to data quality issues.