Real Value Household Expenses Deteriorate by 5.4 Percent

EghtesadOnline: The overall inflation-adjusted expenditure of Iranian households in the last fiscal year (March 2019-20) decreased by 5.4% compared with the year before.

News ID: ۷۵۰۴۲۳

08 July 2020

However, when current prices are applied, average household expenditure indicates a surge of 24.5%, the Statistical Center of Iran reported.

When constant prices are used, Iranian households spent less on nine out of 11 groups of the basket of consumer goods and services in the last fiscal year compared with the year before. The sharpest of such declines was registered for the transportation group with 31.1%.

Real value spending increased for two groups of "housing, water and fuel" with 7.2% and "communications" with 2.2%.

Households’ spending last year, when constant prices (real value) are used, decreased year-on-year by 11% on "food and beverage" group; 4.1% on "tobacco"; 22.2% on "clothing and shoes"; 19.8% on "furniture, home appliances and their maintenance"; 7.5% on "health and treatment"; 31.1% on "transportation"; 28.4% on "leisure and culture"; 23.5% on "hotels and restaurants" and 8.1% on "miscellaneous items and services".

When current prices (nominal value) are used, households’ spending increased year-on-year by 28.6% on the "food and beverage" group; 28.3% on "tobacco"; 9.7% on "clothing and shoes"; 32.9% on "housing, water and fuel"; 20.8% on "furniture, home appliances and their maintenance"; 16.2% on "health and treatment"; 0.6% on "transportation"; 19.4% on "communications"; 4.8% on "leisure and culture"; 5.2% on "hotels and restaurants" and 27.3% on "miscellaneous items and services".

During the fourth quarter of last Iranian year (Dec. 22, 2019-March 19), the overall inflation-adjusted expenditure of Iranian families dropped by 3.7% year-on-year.

Declines were posted in the following groups of the basket of consumer goods and services: "food and beverage" by 3.9%; "tobacco" by 4%; "clothing and shoes" by 43.2%; "furniture, home appliances and their maintenance" by 15.6%; "health and treatment" by 10%; "transportation" by 45.7%; "leisure and culture" by 35.1%; "hotels and restaurants" by 59.7% and "miscellaneous items and services" by 3.3%.

Real value expenditure on two groups improved in Q4; spending on "communications" increased by 18.4% and on "housing, water and fuel" by 12.4%.

"health and treatment"; 22.7% on "communications" and 20.7% on "miscellaneous items and services".

Nominal spending on four groups declined in Q4: "clothing and shoes" with a decline of 25.2%, "transportation" with 19.1%, "leisure and culture" with 16.7% and "hotels and restaurants" with 48%.

Average Annual Inflation at 34.8%

According to SCI, the average goods and services Consumer Price Index in the 12-month period ending March 19, which marks the final day of the fiscal 2019-20 increased by 34.8% compared with the corresponding period of the year before.

The consumer inflation for the month under review (Feb. 20-March 19) registered a year-on-year increase of 22% compared with the similar month of previous year.

The overall CPI (using the Iranian year to March 2017 as the base year) stood at 200.5 last month, indicating a 1.5% rise compared with the month before.

CPI registered a year-on-year increase of 22.2% for urban areas and 21.1% for rural areas in the month ending March 19 compared with the similar month of last year.

The overall CPI reached 199.5 for urban households and 206.2 for rural households, indicating a month-on-month increase of 1.4% and 1.8% for urban and rural areas, respectively.

SCI put urban and rural 12-month inflation for the month under review at 34.4% and 37.3% respectively.

Notably, with a coefficient of 26.64%, the CPI of "food and beverages" stood at 229.9 in the month ending March 19, indicating a 1.9% increase compared with the month before. The food and beverage index registered a year-on-year increase of 14.8% compared with the similar month of last year. The CPI of food and beverages group in the 12-month period ending March 19 increased by 43% compared with last year’s corresponding period.

Nominal Income Vs Spending

Another report published by SCI recently showed Iranian households living in urban areas spent an average of 474,379,000 rials ($2,206) in the last Iranian year (March 2019-20), 20.6% more than in the preceding year (not inflation-adjusted).

"Food and tobacco" with 117,529,000 rials or $546 accounted for 24.8% of total expenditures, whereas expenditure on non-food category stood at 356,850,000 rials or $1,659, accounting for 75.2% of total spending.

Meat accounted for 22% (the biggest share) of the overall urban households’ expenditures in food category.

Housing, fuel and light costs had the lion’s share in non-food category with 48%.

Urban households declared they received an average income of 541,007,000 rials ($2,516) last year, which shows a 24.4% rise compared with the previous year (not inflation-adjusted).

Other findings of the SCI report about urban households are as follows:

Sources of generating income for urban households were “paid-employment jobs” (32.5%), “self-employment jobs in farming or nonfarm payroll employment” (16.1%) and “miscellaneous sources of income” (51.4%).

The percentage of urban households that owned cars decreased from 53.2% in the fiscal 2018-19 to 53.1% in the fiscal 2019-20.

The percentage of households using refrigerators and freezers increased from 68.5% to 70.2%, vacuum cleaners from 91.5% to 91.7% and washing machines from 86.6% to 87.1%.

The percentage of households using dishwashers decreased from 8.4% to 7.6%, stoves from 99.2% to 99.1% and the percentage of urban households owning microwave and halogen ovens went down from 12.6% to 12.3% during the period.

Last year, 93.6% of urban households used natural gas for heating.

Rural Households

The report also showed the average expenditure of rural households last year stood at 261,006,000 rials ($1,213), which registers a 21.7% rise compared with the year before (not inflation-adjusted).

Food and tobacco costs constituted 39.3% or 102,664,000 rials ($477) and non-food costs amounted to 60.7% or 158,342,000 rials ($736) of the total rural households' expenses.

Flour, noodle, grains, bread and meat accounted for 22% (the biggest share) of the overall rural households’ expenditures in the food and tobacco category, whereas housing, fuel and light costs had the lion’s share in non-food category with 30%.

The average yearly income of rural households was 297,022,000 rials ($1,381) that shows a 27.4% increase compared to the previous year (not inflation-adjusted).

Sources of generating income were paid-employment jobs (30.7%), self-employment jobs in farming or nonfarm payroll employment (33.5%) and miscellaneous sources of income (35.8%).

The percentage of rural households with cars improved from 32.3% in fiscal 2018-19 to 32.7% in the fiscal 2019-20, those using refrigerators and freezers increased from 49.2% to 50.4%, stoves from 98.3% to 98.4%, washing machines from 56% to 56.5 and microwave and halogen ovens from 2% to 2.3% during the period.

The percentage of households using vacuum cleaners decreased from 66.1% to 65.9% and those using dishwashers remained unchanged at 0.5%.

Last year, 71.7% of rural households used natural gas for heating and 16.4% used kerosene for heating.

Urban households residing in Tehran Province recorded the highest annual expenditure with 727,175,000 rials ($3,687) and those living in Kerman had the lowest annual expenditure with 263,207,000 rials ($1,334) last year.

The annual income of Tehran Province’s urban families stood at 813,170,000 rials or $4,123 (the highest among Iranian provinces) and that of Kerman’s households hovered around 340,888,000 rials or $1,728 (the lowest among Iranian provinces) last year.

Rural households residing in Alborz Province recorded the highest annual expenditure with 417,714,000 rials ($2,118) and those living in Sistan-Baluchestan had the lowest annual expenditure with 146,430,000 rials ($742) last year.

The annual income of Alborz Province’s rural families stood at 461,488,000 rials or $2,340 (the highest among Iranian provinces) and that of Sistan-Baluchestan’s households hovered around 128,104,000 rials or $649 (the lowest among Iranian provinces) last year.

The latest SCI report is based on a survey of 19,898 urban households and 18,430 rural households.