First consumption data released after 2011-2012

An average Indian spent 3,773 per month in rural India and 26,459 in urban India in 2022-23. The average monthly food spending of an average rural and urban Indian was ₹1,750 and ₹2,530, respectively.

- Roshan Kishore and Abhishek Jha

At 2011-12 prices, the average monthly spending by rural and urban Indians has increased from ₹1,430 and ₹2,630 in 2011-12 to ₹2,008 and ₹3,510 in 2022-23.

Even the top 5% of rural and urban Indians spend ₹10,501 and ₹20,824 on average in a month.

These are the key takeaways from the summary results of the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) for 2022-23, released by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) on Saturday.

While the NSSO has just published a 27-page "fact-sheet" on the HCES results and said that a detailed report of the survey will be brought out subsequently", even the summary results are important because they are the first piece of consumption data published by the government after the 2011-12 Consumption Expenditure Survey (CES).

Because India does not have official income statistics, CES data is pretty much the only piece of information on not just consumption spending but also poverty and inequality among households in India. CES data is also a critical piece of information in updating the GDP series and inflation basket in the country, both of which continue to be pegged to the 2011-12 CES at the moment.

To be sure, the NSSO did conduct a CES in 2017-18, but its findings were junked by the government after a leak before being officially released in a move that was widely criticised by independent economists. The official reason for junking the CES was poor quality of data. The leaked findings, however, showed that average consumption had fallen in real terms compared to 2011-12.

Because the NSSO has only released summary stats and both the full report or unit level are yet to be released for the 2022-23 HCES, a detailed analysis of the results, including things such as consumption inequality, is not possible.