India's food consumption expenditure trends reveal a reassuring shift

The HCES data not only points to a secular decline in the share of food items in the spending basket, but also reveals a shift in the composition of food expenditure itself

A new working paper titled “Changes in India’s Food Consumption and Policy Implications: A Comprehensive Analysis of Household Consumption Expenditure Survey 2022-23 and 2011-12”, published by the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, has highlighted some interesting aspects of the trends in India’s food consumption. A simple comparison of the data from the Household Consumption Expenditure Surveys (HCES) of 2011-12 and 2022-23 reveals that there has been a significant increase in households’ average monthly per capita expenditure (MPCE) in rural and urban areas across all states and Union Territories in the country. In fact, rural households