Home ›› 17 Apr 2023 ›› Front
The average monthly household expenditure on non-food consumption has more than doubled in last six years since 2016 due to high inflationary pressure in the country, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
The national expenditure on non-food consumption rose by 106 per cent in 2022 as compared to 2016 while by 62 per cent in 2016 as compared to 2010, said a latest survey on Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) of 2022.
The non-food share increased only by 2 per cent in 2022 as compared to 2016 while non-food expenditure increased by 106 per cent during this period.
In 2016, the non-food share increased by 7 per cent as compared to 2010 while non-food consumption increased by 62 per cent during this period.
Experts opined that non-food expenditure has risen against the increase in the non-food share in 2022 comparing to the latest survey due to substantial increase in the costs of non-food items such as transport, medical, education, real estate, tourism and so on.
Besides, rapid urbanisation and digitalisation changed people’s lifestyle which pushed up the share of non-food items. Experts also said non-food expenditure consumption has doubled in last six years due to increase of inflation in these items. It has also increased due to growing use of non-food items during this period.
Non-food expenditure increased more in urban areas than rural areas. It means inflationary pressure impacted city dwellers more than that of rural areas.
Non-food expenditure in urban areas increased by 116 per cent in 2022 as compared to the last six years while it increased by 40 per cent in 2016 as compared to the 2010 survey.
In rural areas, such expenditure increased by 76 per cent in 2016 as compared to 2010 and by 90 per cent in 2022 compared to 2016.
According to the Household Income and Expenditure (HIES) survey 2022, the national monthly average non-food consumption expenditure was estimated at Tk 16,600 in 2022. The consumption in rural areas was estimated at Tk 13,082 and Tk 24,097 in urban areas.
In 2016, the average expenditure was estimated at Tk 8,066, with an estimation of Tk 6,866 in rural areas and Tk 11,129 in urban areas.
In 2010, the average non-food expenditure of national level household was Tk 4,972. It was Tk 3,893 in rural areas and Tk 7,914 in urban areas.
Former lead economist of the World Bank Dhaka Office Zahid Hussain told The Business Post on Saturday that the survey was conducted in 2022 when inflationary pressure mounted in the country.
“Non-Food consumption expenditure has doubled in six years as the people increased use of non-food items,” he said, adding that both income and expenditure increased.
“In the latest survey, non-food expenditure has increased compared to food expenditure of household as middleclass people developed in this timeframe. They spent more on non- food items like tourism, buying cars, apartments and others,” he added.
He also said people have changed their ‘habit of expense’ instead of their income. In urban areas, people have changed their food habit and increased expense on non-food items. So, expenditure has increased in urban areas.
Mohiuddin Ahmed, Project Director of HIES 2022 of BBS, told The Business Post that non-food expenditure has increased as inflation rose in last six years.
“In the latest survey, non-food expenditure has increased due to price hike of non-food items compared to the survey 2016,” he said, adding that the demand for non-food items has increased resulting in increase of expenditure. The project director also said non-food expenditure has gone up along with income during this period. Household expenditure has increased after the government announced the new pay scale for its officials and employees in 2015 which had impact on the survey, BBS officials and economists think.
Besides, medical equipment had increased during the Covid-19 pandemic which impact to increase of household expenditure. Apart from this, the dollar crisis deepened following the Russia-Ukraine war after the Covid-19 pandemic.
In 2022, the prices of imported goods went up and Bangladesh faced the highest inflationary pressure in the last 11.3 years. On the other hand, the price of fuel oil doubled in the year after Bangladesh met the IMF condition. Along with that, the price of electricity has also increased.
All these reasons put impact on the cost of living. The inflation in rural areas was 9.70 per cent while 9.18 per cent in urban areas. The expenditure was more in rural areas than urban areas, according to the BBS. Then, inflation slightly decreased but increased to 9.33 per cent in March 2023.
