The Ministry of Planning & International Cooperation and the Department of Statistics launch the results

 of the Household Expenditure and Income survey 2006
 

The Director General of the Department of Statistics (Dos) Dr. Gazi Shbaikat and the Director of Studies at the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation, held a press conference on Wednesday 26 September 2007 at the premises of the DoS to launch the results of the Household Expenditure & Income Survey 2006. Dr. Shbaikat stated that this survey is usually implemented once every five years, but due to its importance, it has been decided to conduct it once every two years with a sample of 13000 households distributed over the Kingdom and statistically is representative at sub-district level.  Each household was visited 15 times in average for collecting data on goods, services and the acquired income.

In regards to the survey results, Dr Shbaikat stated that the average annual income of the household at the Kingdom level amounted to J.D. 6220, with an increase of 11.3% compared to the year 2002.

The household income varies at governorate level, reaching about J.D. 7412 in maximum in the Amman Governorate and about J.D. 4680 in minimum in the Zarqa Governorate.  As for the expenditure on goods and services, Dr. Shbaikat explained that the average expenditure of household was about J.D. 7550 in 2006, with an increase of 21.7% compared with the year 2002.  Thus, the gap between the average expenditure and the average income has reached about J.D. 1331.

In this context, Dr. Shabikat explained that having such a gap means that the local saving is negative and could be covered through different means, the main of which is through borrowing, transfers from abroad and liquidation of fixed assets of these households.  He also pointed out the proportional change in the consumption pattern of the Jordanian households in favor of non-food commodities constituted 64% of the total expenditure in 2006 compared to 60% in 2002.  He added that this change was at the expense of expenditure on ford commodities whose relative importance has retreated from 39.7% in 2002 to 36.5% in 2006.

The change in the consumption pattern and improvement in the welfare level of the Jordanian citizen becomes clear if we notice the ownership of durable goods by the households.  Recent years witnessed a rise in the percentage of households owning relatively new commodities such as mobile phones, satellite receivers and computers  against a decrease in owning traditional goods such as sewing machines, radios and VCRs.

Dr. Shbaikat indicated that the governorates with larger population such as the Amman governorate were behind this relative change in the consumption pattern, where the expenditure ratio on food items in the Amman governorate retreated from 32.6% in 2002 to 28.2% in 2006.  He stated that this retreat was in favor of expenditure on non-food commodities. The expenditure ratio on these commodities increased from 67.4% in 2002 to 71.8% in 2006.

In this context, Mr. Al-Asal stated that expenditure on the house and utilities by the Jordanian household has slightly decreased between 2002 and 2006, where expenditure retreated from 16.9% to 15.8%.  He explained that the Aqaba governorate occupied the first rank on the Kingdom level at the rate of 21% in 2006 thus retaining the recorded level of 2002.  He attributed the reason to the fact that this area is a special economic zone of investment and population attraction.

As for the expected benefits of this study, Mr. Al-Asal indicated that the aim of this periodic study is to provide the socio-economic decision makers, the researches and scholars with an accurate data base.  In addition to that, the results of the survey shall be used to review the computation of the living cost index numbers so that the base year becomes 2006 instead of 2002.

Mr. Al-Asal also pointed out that the results of the survey are mainly used to identify the poverty indicators such as computing the poverty line, poverty ratio, poverty gap and poverty severity on the sub-district level in addition to preparing the poverty maps.  He added that work is underway to update all the required indicators.

While commenting on the noted changes in the consumption pattern, Mr. Al-Asal said that it is attributed to many factors most remarkably is the relative changes in prices.  Recent years witnessed variations in prices of goods.  The price increase of food items was greater than that of non-food commodities.  There is also variations within each major group.  The second factor was the introduction of new products that was not widely used in the past such as mobile phones and satellite receivers against the diminishing use of traditional goods by the households.  The third factor is the natural development of the expenditure pattern level, the economic development and the high welfare level in the society.  Households are increasing the consumption of non-basic commodities after fulfilling their basic requirements at lower income levels.  This is an ordinary matter experienced by societies during the stages of development.