India family spending on non-food objects rises as urban-rural hole narrows

By Manoj Kumar

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Indian family spending on non-food objects comparable to transport, clothes and leisure rose in each rural and concrete areas in 2023/24 whereas outlays on staples like wheat and rice dropped, a authorities report confirmed on Friday.

The Family Consumption Expenditure Survey for 2023/24, performed from August 2023 to July 2024, confirmed non-food objects accounted for about 53% of per capita spending in rural areas, up from about 47% in 2011/12, and 60% in city areas, up from about 57%.

The shift in spending patterns is predicted to result in a lower within the weighting of meals objects within the shopper value index (CPI), which is utilized by the central financial institution to border financial coverage.

Officers from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation have beforehand indicated plans to revise the bottom yr for the retail inflation knowledge from 2012 to 2024, incorporating these findings.

Analysts stated meals is prone to have a smaller weighting in India’s shopper value index within the close to future.

The urban-rural month-to-month per capita shopper spending hole narrowed to 70% in 2023/24 from 84% in 2011/12, the report famous.

In nominal phrases, rural shopper spending climbed 9.55% yr on yr to 4,122 rupees ($48.23) per thirty days within the yr by July from 3,773 rupees the earlier yr, whereas city spending rose 8.31% to six,996 rupees from 6,459 rupees, the report confirmed.

Adjusted for inflation, rural spending grew simply 3.5%, whereas city spending remained subdued attributable to retail inflation of about 5.5% within the fiscal yr that led to March.

In contrast with 2011/12, rural shopper spending rose 45.4%, outpacing the 38.1% improve in city areas, reflecting a slight convergence in consumption patterns.

Shopper spending, which accounts for about 58% of India’s financial exercise, stays a essential driver of financial development in Asia’s third-largest economic system.

($1 = 85.4710 Indian rupees)