hbs
Household Budget Survey 2006/07 – Main results
&
Updated weights for the Consumer Price Index
Highlights
The Central Statistics Office conducted the eighth Household
Budget Survey (HBS) from July 2006 to June 2007 in the Republic of
Mauritius. The survey studied the consumption pattern of the Mauritian
population with a view to update the basket of goods and services used
for the computation of the monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI). This
issue of Economic and Social Indicators presents the main results
obtained from the survey as well as the weights for the new basket.
Income
1. Average monthly household disposable income increased by 33.7% from
Rs14,232 in 2001/02 to Rs19,025 in 2006/07. After adjusting for
inflation between 2001/02 and 2006/07, there was no significant change
in household income.
2. The income inequality increased between 2001/02 and 2006/07.
The share of total income going to the 20% of households at the lower
end of the income range decreased from 6.4% in 2001/02 to 6.1% in
2006/07. On the other hand, the share of the upper 20% increased from
44.0% to 45.7%. The rise in income inequality is confirmed by the
increase in the Gini coefficient from 0.371 in 2001/02 to 0.389 in
2006/07, almost the same level as in 1996/97 (0.387).
Expenditure
3. Average monthly household consumption expenditure increased by 33.4%
from Rs11,390 in 2001/02 to Rs15,188 in 2006/07. After adjusting for
inflation between 2001/02 and 2006/07, there was no significant change
in household expenditure.
4. In 2006/07, the largest broad category of household
expenditure was ‘Food and non-alcoholic beverages’ accounting for nearly
30% of total household consumption expenditure. Next comes ‘Transport’
accounting for 15.2% followed by ‘Housing, water, electricity, gas and
other fuels’ with 9.8%, and ‘Alcoholic beverages and tobacco’ with 9.5%
of total expenditure.
Relative poverty
5. The proportion of poor households below the relative poverty line
(set at the half median household income per adult equivalent) was 8.0%
in 2006/07 up from 7.7% in 2001/02.
CPI weights (per 1,000)
6. The weight for “Food and non alcoholic beverages” declined from 299
in 2001/02 to 286 in 2006/07. Within this category of expenditure, the
weight for government imported rice declined from 5 to 3 whilst that for
other rice increased from 16 to 21. The weight for government imported
flour remained at 2 and that for bread increased from 17 to 21.
7. The division “Housing, water, electricity, gas and other
fuels”, increased by 35 from 96 in 2001/02 to 131 in 2006/07 due to the
introduction of interests on housing loan (weight of 37) for the first
time in the CPI basket. The weight of electricity increased from 32 to
33, that for cooking gas from 14 to 16.
8. The
weight for ‘Transport’ increased from 139 to 147 mainly due to an
increase in the weights for gasoline (from 27 to 36), diesel (from 4
to 8) and air transport (from 13 to 19) partly offset by a significant
decline in the weight for bus fare (from 26 to 13) due to the
introduction of free bus transport for students and the elderly.
October
2007
More
: Household Budget Survey 2006/07 – Main results & Updated weights
for the Consumer Price Index
Introduction
Table 1 –
Comparison of HBS 2006/07 with CMPHS 2006
Table 2 -
Comparison of HBS 2006/07 expenditure data on some items with data from
other sources
Table 3 -
Selected measures of monthly household disposable income - 1996/97,
2001/02 & 2006/07 HBS
Table 4:
Distribution (%) of households by income class - 1996/97 -2006/07 HBS
Figure 1 -
Lorenz curves, 2001/02 & 2006/07 HBS
Table 5 -
Average monthly household income by source of income, 2001/02 &
2006/07 HBS
Table 6:
Adjusted average monthly household consumption expenditure by COICOP
division - 2001/02 & 2006/07 HBS
Table 7 –
Selected summary indicators on poverty, 1996/97, 2001/02 & 2006/07
HBS
ANNEX
