Kathmandu, Feb. 26: There has been a change in the habit of Nepalese consumers in the utilisation of goods and services in the last ten years and the trend is now increasing towards spending on education, health and housing sectors.

This is stated in a new consumer price index (CPI) based on the belated results of the third Household Budget Survey 2052/2053 B.S. conducted by Nepal Rastra Bank.

The survey was carried out in 2500 households in 21 different municipalities across the country over a period of 13 months between mid-July 1996 to mid-August 1997.

According to the survey, the commodity weightage for food and beverages in the Kathmandu Valley, the hills and Terai regions is 51.53 per cent, 53.04 per cent and 54.98 per cent respectively while the weightage of non-food commodities and services is respectively 48.47 per cent, 46.96 per cent and 53.02 per cent.

Likewise, in terms of the weightage as per the proportion of population of the study areas, the weightage of food and beverages in the national urban consumers price index is 53.20 per cent and 46.80 per cent for non-food commodities and services.

Similarly, according to the survey the average household size in urban areas of the country is 5.2 persons and 71.8 per cent of the total urban population aged six years or above are literate. Out of the (71.8 per cent) literate urban population, 83.3 per cent were males and 59.8 per cent were females.

The survey states that 71.1 per cent families had their own houses while 24.2 per cent lived on rent. Likewise, 51.4 per cent of the total urban population aged ten years or more were actively engaged in economic activities and the average monthly income per person in the country was Rs 1,426 on the basis of income per person in urban areas.

The survey put the rate of inflation in fiscal year 1997/1998 at 8.1 per cent, fiscal year 1998/1999 at 8.4 per cent and fiscal year 1999/2000 at 11.3 per cent. Similarly, the price fluctuation of food commodities and beverages for the years was put at 8.2 per cent, 6.9 per cent and 16.1 per cent respectively.

The price index for non-food commodities and services for the three fiscal years in reference was 8 per cent, 9.1 per cent and 5.8 per cent respectively.

The main reasons for the differences in the rate of inflation as shown by the price index has been attributed to the addition of more market centres, fluctuation in the number of commodities and the alteration in the weightage of commodity and services included in the price index and the weightage of goods in the new price index compared to the previous price index.

A similar household budget survey was carried out by Nepal Rastra   Bank    in     2040   B.S.   as per its programme of conducting such surveys at an interval of ten years.