Urban Households’ Income, Spending Growth 7.6 Percent Above Inflation

EghtesadOnline: Iranian families living in urban areas spent an average of 329,525,000 rials ($7,845) in the last Iranian year (March 2017-18), 15.7% more than in the preceding year, the latest report by the Statistical Center of Iran shows.

News ID: ۷۸۳۶۱۰

11 August 2018

'Food and tobacco' (76,750,000 rials or $1,827) accounted for 23.3% of total expenditures. Whereas expenditure on 'non-food' category stood at 252,775,000 rials or $6,018 accounting for 76.7% of total spending.

Flour, noodle, grains and bread accounted for 22.1% (the biggest share) of the overall urban households’ expenditures in the 'food and tobacco' category, whereas housing costs had the lion’s share in non-food category with 43%.

Housing solely accounted for 32.9% of urban household's total expenditure, according to Financial Tribune.

Urban households declared they received an average income of 366,947,000 rials ($8,736) last year, which shows a 15.7% rise compared to the previous year.

Sources of generating income were 'paid-employment jobs' (34.4%), 'self-employment jobs in farming or nonfarm payroll employment' (16.1%) and 'miscellaneous sources of income' (49.6%).

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

The percentage of urban households that owned cars improved from 47.6% in the fiscal 2016-17 to 50.6% in fiscal 2017-18.

The percentage of households using refrigerators and freezers increased from 60.5% to 63.2%, vacuum cleaners from 90.3% to 91%, washing machines from 84.5% to 86.3%, dishwashers from 5.8% to 7.3% and the percentage of urban households owning microwave ovens went up from 10.3% to 12.4% during the period under review.

Last year, 93.8% of urban households used natural gas for heating.

According to SCI, the average goods and services Consumer Price Index for urban areas in the 12 months ending March 20, which marks the end of the Iranian month of Esfand and the fiscal 2017-18, increased by 8.1% compared with last year’s corresponding period.

> Rural Households

The average expenditure of rural households last year stood at 178,760,000 rials ($4,256), which posts a 13.9% rise compared to its preceding year.

Food and tobacco costs constituted 37.2% or 66,504,000 rials ($1,583) and nonfood costs amounted to 62.8% or 112,166,000 rials ($2,670) of the total rural families’ expenses.

Flour, noodle, grains and bread accounted for 25.2% (the biggest share) of the overall rural households’ expenditures of food and tobacco category, whereas housing costs had the lion’s share in non-food category with 29.1%.

The average yearly income of rural households was 201,842,000 rials ($4,805) that shows a 14.1% increase compared to the previous year.

Sources of generating income were paid-employment jobs (29.4%), self-employment jobs in farming or nonfarm payroll employment (31.7%) and miscellaneous sources of income (38.8%).

The percentage of rural households with cars improved from 27% in the fiscal 2016-17 to 29.6% in the fiscal 2017-18.

The percentage of households with refrigerators and freezers increased from 41.6% to 45.2%, vacuum cleaners from 64.1% to 64.2%, washing machines from 52.1% to 53.9%, dishwashers from 0.2% to 0.3% and the percentage of rural households owning microwave ovens went up from 1.6% to 1.9% during the period under review.

Last year, 64.4% of rural households used natural gas while 25.1% used kerosene for heating.

According to SCI, the average goods and services Consumer Price Index for rural areas in the 12 months ending March 20, which marks the end of the Iranian month of Esfand and the fiscal 2017-18, increased by 8.8% compared with last year’s corresponding period.

The latest SCI report is based on a survey of 18,701 urban households and 19,261 rural households.

> CBI Report

A similar report was released by the Central Bank of Iran in July, according to which the annual income of the average Iranian household outweighed their living expenses by almost 17.96 million rials ($427), or 1.49 million rials ($35.4) a month, in the last Iranian year (March 2017-18).

The report, which is based on a survey of almost 13,000 households, indicates that the average annual gross income of urban households was about 439.27 million rials ($10,458) or about 36.6 million rials ($871.4) a month, registering a 12% rise compared with the previous fiscal year (March 2016-17).

The average annual gross expense of the households, on the other hand, was 421.3 million rials ($10,030) or about 35.1 million rials ($835.7) a month, registering a 7.2% increase year-on-year.

'Lodging, water, electricity and gas' topped the list of household expenses, together making up for 35.5% of all expenses. They were followed by 'food and beverages' (23.5%) and 'transportation' (10.6%), 'Other goods and services' (8.2%), 'health and treatment' (5.7%), 'clothing and shoes' (4.2%), 'domestic appliances' (4%), 'communications' (2.1%), 'restaurants and hotels' (2.1%), 'entertainment and cultural activities' (1.9%), 'education' (1.8%) and 'tobacco' (0.3%).

According to CBI, the average goods and services Consumer Price Index for urban areas in the 12 months ending March 20, which marks the end of the last Iranian year, increased by 9.6% compared with the previous year’s corresponding period.

The CBI does not report inflation rates for rural areas.