The National Sample Survey (NSS) Office released the key results of the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) 2022-23 in late February. These primarily include all-India estimates of the average household monthly per capita consumption expenditure (MPCE) for rural and urban areas, its distribution by broad item groups for food and non-food categories, the variation in the average MPCE of households with different standards of living (by appropriately grouping them into 12 ‘fractile classes’ of MPCE), and the trend in the composition of MPCE since the 1999-2000 survey (55th round of the NSS). So far as the State-level estimates are concerned, the factsheet gives only estimates of average MPCE — total of food and non-food items — for each State and Union Territory (UT) for rural and urban areas.
As the earlier available results pertain to 2011-12, the latest results have bridged the data vacuum of more than a decade on an important subject that also goes into the compilation of poverty estimates. While the methodology for the HCES is more refined now, there are still challenges that need to be addressed. This will ensure that apart from producing much firmer estimates of the average MPCE, the new series has an in-built mechanism to maintain comparability of the current estimates with those of the earlier ‘quinquennial series’ available from 1972-73 to 2011-12.
EDITORIAL | Decoding consumption: On the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey
