Indians spend less on food, more on tobacco

While there is a reduction in expenditure on food items and education, the spending on medical expenses, conveyance, rent and unhealthy items such as pan, tobacco, intoxicants has seen a rise.

- JITENDRA CHOUBEY 

The expenditure and consumption patterns of both rural and urban households are almost similar, with one exception. The trend of spending on egg, fish and meat in urban households has fallen compared to rural households, where it has marginally increased.

The government is yet to release the detailed report, Household Consumption Expenditure Survey, which was conducted during August 2022 to July 2023.

Such a survey is being released after almost a decade.

It is worth mentioning that the government had earlier junked the 2017-18 report of NSO, citing lack of "data quality", although critics say it was binned due to the "adverse findings". The earlier report had shown that household spending had declined for the first time in the last four decades.