Household Consumption Expenditures between 1970 and 2012

The paper describes the development of household consumption expenditures from a longer perspective. Currently, there are available data for more than forty years and it means that lots of information about changes in structure and main tendencies can be studied. Since the emphasis is put on the comparable time series, it was necessary to prepare transformation of original data into national accounts. Historical figures on private consumption were published in line with the Material Product System that is not fully comparable with the System of National Accounts. Data on private consumption reflecting only material part of consumption had to be transformed into household consumption expenditures covering both expenditures for material and non-material products. The process of transformation of original data reflecting socialist statistical system is briefly described, as well as main differences. Key points of transformation are illustrated on selected years. Finally, original data are compared with reconstructed ones and differences are explained. The analysis provides useful information about main changes in consumption expenditures by CZ-COICOP. Finally, some often discussed issues like the relative increase of expenditures connected with housing, decrease of the share of foodstuff etc. can be proven now.