Skip to content

Questions about Household final consumption expenditure

Short answers, pulled from the story.

What is household final consumption expenditure?

Household final consumption expenditure represents a transaction of the national account's use of income account that tracks money flowing from resident households to purchase goods and services. This specific accounting entry covers everyday items like food, clothing, and cars sold at prices that are not economically significant.

Who documented the standards for household final consumption expenditure in 2006?

F. Lequiller and D. Blades documented these standards in their 2006 publication Understanding National Accounts published by OECD in Paris. Their work defines how expenditure is measured at purchasers' prices which reflects the actual amount paid by the buyer including non-deductible value added tax and other taxes on products.

Which countries have high government shares in providing individual consumption goods under household final consumption expenditure?

Belgium, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Finland, and Sweden exemplify this pattern where welfare states show high government shares in providing individual consumption goods. In these nations household final consumption expenditure represents less than 80% of actual final consumption for most years.

How does household final consumption expenditure differ from actual final consumption?

Household final consumption expenditure is not an exhaustive measure of goods and services consumed by households because it excludes general government and non-profit institutions serving households. Adding general government individual consumption expenditure to household final consumption yields actual final consumption which includes health services provided by governments or reimbursed by social security funds.

What components make up household final consumption expenditure?

Imputed rent for owner-occupied housing stands as generally the most important component within this category while income in kind earned by employees also enters the calculation. Households own account consumption covers outputs produced by unincorporated enterprises owned by those same households such as the own-consumption of milk produced directly on a farm.