City rents pinch more than before: Household consumption expenditure survey

Share in expenditure higher than previous consumption expenditure survey reports dating back to at least 1999-2000

The average person living in an Indian city allocates more of her budget to paying rent than ten, or even twenty years ago.

The share of rent in the monthly per capita consumption expenditure (MPCE) for urban India rose to 6.56 per cent, according to the latest Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) in 2022-23. 

This was the highest it has been in similar surveys going back to at least 1999-2000. It was 4.46 per cent at the turn of the millennium.

The government released data on India’s consumption patterns on Saturday.

The last available numbers are from 2011-12-around a decade