📋 Tender Overview
The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) decided to conduct two consecutive surveys on household consumption expenditure during 2022-23 and 2023-24, once situation normalized after the Covid-19 pandemic. The first survey was conducted during the period August 2022 to July 2023 and the summary results of the survey in the form of a factsheet was released in February 2024. Subsequently, the detailed report and the unit level data of the survey was released in June 2024.
The fieldwork of the second survey on the subject has been undertaken during August 2023 to July 2024 throughout the entire country. The summary results of the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey: 2023-24 (HCES:2023-24) has been prepared at state and broad item groups level and is being released in the form of a factsheet. The factsheet of HCES:2023-24 is available in the website of the Ministry ().
HCES is designed to collect information on consumption and expenditure of the households on goods and services. The survey provides data required to assess trends in economic well-being and to determine and update the basket of consumer goods and services and weights used for the calculation of the Consumer Price Index. Data collected in HCES is also used to measure poverty, inequality, and social exclusion. The Monthly Per Capita Consumption Expenditure (MPCE) compiled from HCES is the primary indicator used for most analytical purposes.
The estimates of MPCE of 2023-24 are based on the data collected from 2,61,953 Households (1,54,357 in rural areas and 1,07,596 in urban areas) in the central sample spread over all States and Union Territories in the country. As in HCES:2022-23, in HCES:2023-24 also two sets of estimates of MPCE have been generated: (i) without considering imputed values of items received free of cost by the households through various social welfare programmes and (ii) considering imputed values of items received free of cost by the households through various social welfare programmes. The first set of estimates are presented in Section A while the second ones are presented in Section B.
Important Findings of HCES: 2023-24
The average MPCE in rural and urban India in 2023-24 has been estimated to be Rs. 4,122 and Rs. 6,996, respectively without taking into account of the values of items received free of cost by the households through various social welfare programmes. Considering the imputed values of items received free of cost through various social welfare programmes, these estimates become Rs. 4,247 and Rs. 7,078 respectively, for rural and urban areas. In nominal prices, the average MPCE (without imputation) in 2023-24 increases by about 9% in rural areas and 8% in urban areas from the level of 2022-23. The urban-rural gap in MPCE has declined to 71% in 2022-23 from 84% in 2011-12. It has further come down to 70% in 2023-24 that confirms sustained momentum of consumption growth in rural areas. When ranked by MPCE, the increase in the average MPCE in 2023-24 from the level of 2022-23 has been the maximum for the bottom 5 to 10 % of Indias population, for both rural and urban areas. Consistent with the trend observed in HCES:2022-23, non-food items remain the major contributor to the households average monthly expenditure in 2023-24 with about 53% and 60% share in MPCE in rural and urban areas respectively.
Beverages, refreshments and processed food continues to have the major expenditure share in 2023-24 in the food items basket of the rural and urban households. Conveyance, clothing, bedding & footwear, miscellaneous goods & entertainment and durable goods have major expenditure share in non-food expenditure of the households in both rural and urban areas. Rent consisting of house rent, garage rent and hotel accommodation charges with about 7% share is another major constituent of the urban households non-food expenditure. Consumption inequality, both in rural and urban areas has declined from the level of 2022-23. The Gini coefficient has declined to 0.237 in 2023-24 from 0.266 in 2022-23 for rural areas and to 0.284 in 2023-24 from 0.314 in 2022-23 for urban areas. Estimates of MPCE (without considering imputed values of items received free of cost through various social welfare programmes in HCES:2023-24)
Variation in MPCE across fractiles classes
Besides, the all-India average MPCE, average MPCE over fractile classes of MPCE compiled from the data collected in HCES: 2023-24 at current prices are shown below in Figure 1. For any fraction f (0<f<1), the corresponding fractile of the distribution of MPCE (Y) is the level of MPCE, say, Yf such that the proportion of population whose household MPCE lies below Yf is f. The bottom 5% of Indias rural population, ranked by MPCE, has an average MPCE of Rs. 1,677 while it is Rs. 2,376 for the same category of population in the urban areas. The top 5% of Indias rural and urban population, ranked by MPCE, has an average MPCE of Rs. 10,137 and Rs. 20,310, respectively.
Average MPCE in 2023-24 has increased the most (22%) from the level of 2022-23 for the bottom 5% of Indias rural population when ranked by MPCE and for the corresponding segment of urban population the growth has been about 19% during the same period.
