NEW DELHI: As the economy recovered from covid pandemic, household spending in 2024-25 marked a further shift towards non-essential discretionary items and services, which have earlier seen decline, signalling premiumisation and a boost for govt revenues.After seeing a decline in 2023-24, growth in household spending on alcoholic beverages, tobacco and narcotics (22.4%) outpaced growth in all other item categories to Rs 2.7 lakh crore, nearly double than what households spent on ‘recreation, sport and culture’ (Rs 1.4 lakh crore), the latest national accounts data released by NSO, with the revised base year 2022-23, showed.Similarly, the ‘personal care, social protection and miscellaneous goods and services’ category, which has seen spending decline in 2023-24, saw a rise of 19% to Rs 5.3 lakh crore.Jewellery items, such as precious stones, wristwatches, smartwatches etc are covered under this category, along with personal care items like electric razors, hair trimmers, deodorants, sun glasses and grooming services, such as tattoo clubs, salons, spas and saunas. Travel goods like back packs and personal items like lighters, satchels and hand bags are also covered.Though the total private final consumption expenditure (PFCE) in real terms increased nearly 6% to Rs 169 lakh crore in 2024-25 – a pace similar to the previous financial year, much of this rise was cornered by services sector as share of spending on services of the total PFCE rose to 45.2% (Rs 76.3 lakh crore) as compared to 44.4% (Rs 70.5 lakh crore) previously.Among services, other categories like ‘insurance and financial services’ saw a 10% jump in spending to Rs 11.4 lakh crore and health saw 9% rise to Rs 8.7 lakh crore.Among essential categories, spending on food items increased 4% to Rs 45.5 lakh crore, with growth in spending on sugary products (11%), ready made food items (9%) and protein rich items like milk & dairy products, fish and seafood (nearly 7 %) outpacing cereals, eggs, fruits and vegetables. Non alcoholic beverages like soft drinks, water and juice also saw robust growth (25%) in spending in 2024-25.
