Households across the country’s rural and urban areas spent the highest share of consumption expenditure on ‘beverages, refreshments and processed food’ among food items in 2022-23, but some states bucked the trend in favour of other items — ‘milk and milk products’, and ‘egg, fish & meat’.
In rural areas among all major states, the households of Haryana spent the maximum on ‘milk and milk products’ at 41.7 per cent as a percentage of total expenditure on food, while Kerala spent the most on ‘egg, fish & meat’ at 23.5 per cent, detailed report of Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) 2022-23 released by Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) on Friday showed.
‘Milk and milk products’ found favour over ‘beverages and processed food’ in total food expenditure in rural areas for other states also such as Rajasthan (35.5 per cent), Punjab (34.7 per cent), Gujarat (25.5 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (22.6 per cent) and Madhya Pradesh (21.5 per cent).
‘Beverages, processed food etc.’ accounted for the highest share in total food consumption for all other major states, with Tamil Nadu leading with the highest share in spending among states — 28.4 per cent in rural areas and 33.7 per cent in urban areas.
Food items spending – urban
In rural India, where food accounted for about 46 per cent of the households’ consumption spending, the contribution of ‘beverages, refreshments and processed food’ has been the highest (9.62 per cent), followed by milk and milk products (8.33 per cent) and vegetables (5.38 per cent). The share of cereals and cereal substitutes in the consumption spending on food items was about 4.91 per cent.
In urban India, the share of food in average monthly per capita consumption expenditure (MPCE) in 2022-23 was about 39 per cent. In line with rural areas, urban India also recorded the highest consumption spending on ‘beverages, refreshments and processed food’ with 10.64 per cent share followed by milk & milk products at 7.22 per cent and fruits and vegetables, each having a share of 3.8 per cent.
Food items spending – rural
Consumption spending on non-food items
Among non-food items, households spent the most on conveyance in both rural and urban areas of almost all the major states. This was followed by durable goods and miscellaneous goods, entertainment. Medical expenses and spending on fuel & light also constituted a significant share of the expenditure by households on non-food items.
In rural India, the highest share of monthly per capita expenditure on ‘conveyance’ among non-food items was seen in Kerala (18.9 per cent), Tamil Nadu (18 per cent), Gujarat (16.6 per cent), Punjab (16.3 per cent) and Maharashtra (16 per cent). In urban areas, Kerala (16.6 per cent), Tamil Nadu (16.1 per cent), Chhattisgarh (16 per cent), Gujarat (15.7 per cent) and Rajasthan (15.6 per cent) were among the states with the highest share on conveyance as a percentage of expenditure on non-food items.
Consumption spending on non-food items – rural
Medical expenses, which accounted for 13.3 per cent of the consumption expenditure among non-food items in rural areas, were seen to be the highest in Kerala (17.9 per cent), West Bengal (16.8 per cent) and Andhra Pradesh (16.6 per cent) as a percentage of the spending on non-food items. In urban India, West Bengal (15 per cent), Kerala (14.4 per cent) and Punjab (12.4 per cent) were among the states with the highest medical expenditure.
While the consumption expenditure on durable goods was the highest in Kerala in both rural and urban areas, the households in West Bengal spent the highest on fuel & light in both rural and urban areas among all major states.
Consumption spending on non-food items – urban
Over the years, the consumption expenditure on non-food items has increased to over 50 per cent. As expenditure on food items fell for the first time to below 50 per cent of the total monthly consumption expenditure by a household in 2022-23, the resultant spending on non-food items has increased.
In numbers, the non-food spending in monthly per capita expenditure in rural areas increased to 53.62 per cent in 2022-23 from 47.1 per cent in 2011-12, 43.02 per cent in 2009-10, 46.89 per cent in 2004-05 and 40.6 per cent in 1999-2000. In urban areas, the share of non-food items in total expenditure was even higher than rural areas at 60.83 per cent in 2022-23, up from 57.38 per cent in 2011-12, 55.61 per cent in 2009-10. The share was 59.49 per cent in 2004-05 and 51.94 in 1999-2000.
The detailed report of the HCES survey has come three months after the release of a factsheet. The factsheet of the HCES survey report released earlier in February had shown that rural average monthly consumption spending per person increased to Rs 3,773 per month in 2022-23 from Rs 1,430 per person in 2011-12, a jump of 164 per cent. This is higher than the 146 per cent increase in urban average monthly consumption expenditure per person to Rs 6,459 in 2022-23 compared with Rs 2,630 per person in 2011-12.
