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Context

• The All-India Household Consumer Expenditure Survey, is set to resume this year after a prolonged break.
• The government had junked the findings of the last Survey, conducted in 2017–18, citing “data quality” issues.

What is the 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).
• NSSO collects information on the consumption spending patterns of households across the country, both urban and rural.
• The data gathered in this exercise reveals the average expenditure on goods (food and non-food) and services.
• The data helps generate estimates of:

1. Household Monthly Per Capita Consumer Expenditure (MPCE) and
2. Distribution of households and persons over the MPCE classes.

How is it useful?

• The estimates of monthly per capita consumption spending are vital. As it helps us in:

1. Understanding the demand dynamics of the economy.
2. Understanding the shifting priorities in terms of baskets of goods and services,
3. Assessing living standards and growth trends across multiple strata.

• CES is an invaluable analytical as well as forecasting tool. It-

4. Helps 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.
5. Provides pointers to producers of goods and providers of services.
6. Is used by the government in rebasing the GDP and other macro-economic indicators.

The Survey to resume again

• As mentioned earlier the government had junked the findings of the last Survey, conducted in 2017–18, citing “data quality” issues.
• But now a decision has been taken to resume Survey from July for 2022–23.
• Estimates of household Monthly Per Capita Consumer Expenditure (MPCE) will include separate data sets for

1. Rural and urban parts,
2. Spending patterns for each State and Union Territory,
3. Different socio–economic groups.

https://www.thehindu.com/business/Economy/household-consumer-expenditure-survey-to-begin-in-july/article65351300.ece

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