About Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES):
- It is designed to collect information on consumption and expenditure of the households on goods and services.
- It 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.
- As in HCES 2022-23, in HCES 2023-24 also, two sets of estimates of MPCE have been generated:
- Without considering imputed values of items received free of cost by the households through various social welfare programmes, and
- Considering imputed values of items received free of cost by the households through various social welfare programmes.
- This survey is conducted by National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) under the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI).
Important Findings of HCES 2023-24:
- 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 India’s 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 household’s average monthly expenditure in 2023-24
- 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.
- 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.
