hbs
Household
Budget Survey 2012– Main Results
&
Updated
weights for the Consumer Price Index
Highlights
Statistics
Mauritius conducted the ninth Household Budget Survey (HBS) from January
to December 2012 in the Republic of Mauritius. The survey studied the
consumption pattern of the population living in private households in
Mauritius with a view to updating the basket of goods and services used
for the computation of the monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI).
Income
(i)
Average monthly household disposable
income increased by 53.9% from Rs 19,080 in 2006/07 to Rs 29,360 in
2012. After adjusting for inflation and decrease in household size
between 2006/07 and 2012, the real increase worked out to 22.3%.
(ii)
Income inequality increased between
2006/07 and 2012. The share of total income going to the 20% of
households at the lower end of the income range decreased from 6.1% in
2006/07 to 5.4% in 2006/07. On the other hand, the share of the upper
20% of households increased from 45.6% to 47.4%.
(iii)
The rise in income inequality is
confirmed by an increase in the Gini coefficient from 0.388 in 2006/07
to 0.413 in 2012.
Expenditure
(iv)
Average monthly household consumption
expenditure increased by 51.7% from Rs 15,770 in 2006/07 to Rs 23,930 in
2012. After adjusting for inflation and the decrease in
household size between 2006/07 and 2012, the increase worked out to
20.6%.
(v)
In 2012, ‘Food and non-alcoholic
beverages’ had the largest share of household consumption expenditure
(27%) followed by ‘Transport’ (15%), ‘Housing, water, electricity, gas
and other fuels’ (12%) and ‘Alcoholic beverages and tobacco’ (10%).
Relative
poverty
(vi)
The proportion of poor households below
the relative poverty line, set at the half median household income per
adult equivalent, was 9.4% in 2012 up from 7.9% in 2006/07.
CPI
weights (per 1,000)
(vii)
The weight for ‘Food and non alcoholic
beverages’ declined from 286 in 2006/07 to 273 in 2012. Within this
category of expenditure, the weight for government imported rice
declined from 3 to 1 and that for other rice decreased from 21 to 20.
(viii)
The weight for ‘Education’ registered the
highest increase from 32 in 2006/07 to 45 in 2012, explained mainly by
the higher weight for expenditure on university fees from 10 to 19.
(ix)
The
weight for ‘Health’ rose from 30 to 40 mainly due to increases in the
weights for doctors’ fees from 7 to 11 and paramedical services (which
cover laboratory services, x-rays, physiotherapist services etc.) from
negligible to 3.
(x)
The weight for ‘Transport’ increased from
147 to 151. Within ‘Transport’, the weights for
purchase of vehicles increased from 44 to 52 and that for gasolene from
36 to 44, while travelling expenses by air, bus and taxi registered
declines.
April 2013
