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Another difference in the construction of the national consumption aggregates is the treatment of miscellaneous consumption items like self-production and meals bought from outside. Besides food expenditures, there are generally several other categories of expenditures included in the national consumption aggregates. Table 6 summarizes the other food and nonfood items that South Asian countries include as part of the construction of the national consumption aggregates.

Table 6.

Summary of Other Food and Nonfood Items Included in the National Consumption Aggregates

	Afghanistan	Bangladesh	Bhutan	India	Maldives	Nepal	Pakistan	Sri Lanka
Food expenditures
Is self-production accounted for?^a	Yes^a	Yes^a	Yes^b	Yes	No^a	Yes	Yes	Yes
Are meals outside the household accounted for?	Yes	No^c	Yes^d	Yes^e	Yes^f	Yes^g	No	No
Nonfood expenditures
Number of items included		193	85	286	401	62	74	47
Number of items excluded		10	26	0	28	35	31	35
Are consumer durables accounted for?	Yes	Yes^h	Yes^h	Yes^h	No	Yes	No	Yes^h
Housing
Actual rent included?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Imputed rent included?	Yes	Yesⁱ	Yesⁱ	No	No	Yes^j	Yesⁱ	Yesⁱ
Health and education
Health expenditures?	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Education expenditures?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Others
Main items excluded	Weddings, celebrations, donations, talisman, and other miscellaneous expenditures	Occasional expenditures, income tax, interest charges, and insurance	Agricultural input, tax and insurance, and other	None	Occasional expenditure, durables, rent, mortgage, and loan brokerage services	Occasional expenses^k	Occasional expenditures, durables, tax, and annual items^l	Occasional expenditures, tax, insurance, and contributions funds, durables

	Afghanistan	Bangladesh	Bhutan	India	Maldives	Nepal	Pakistan	Sri Lanka
Food expenditures
Is self-production accounted for?^a	Yes^a	Yes^a	Yes^b	Yes	No^a	Yes	Yes	Yes
Are meals outside the household accounted for?	Yes	No^c	Yes^d	Yes^e	Yes^f	Yes^g	No	No
Nonfood expenditures
Number of items included		193	85	286	401	62	74	47
Number of items excluded		10	26	0	28	35	31	35
Are consumer durables accounted for?	Yes	Yes^h	Yes^h	Yes^h	No	Yes	No	Yes^h
Housing
Actual rent included?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Imputed rent included?	Yes	Yesⁱ	Yesⁱ	No	No	Yes^j	Yesⁱ	Yesⁱ
Health and education
Health expenditures?	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Education expenditures?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Others
Main items excluded	Weddings, celebrations, donations, talisman, and other miscellaneous expenditures	Occasional expenditures, income tax, interest charges, and insurance	Agricultural input, tax and insurance, and other	None	Occasional expenditure, durables, rent, mortgage, and loan brokerage services	Occasional expenses^k	Occasional expenditures, durables, tax, and annual items^l	Occasional expenditures, tax, insurance, and contributions funds, durables

COICOP = classification of individual consumption according to purpose.

^aTotal consumption, including self-production, is reported in one question per item. In other countries, market and self-production are reported separately for each item.

^bSelf-production is also accounted for among nonfood items (Block 10 of the questionnaire).

^cQuestionnaire: Section 9A2 item 14.

^dQuestionnaire: Variables at the end of Block 8.

^eQuestionnaire: Block 12, served processed food and packaged processed food.

^fCOICOP: 1111.

^gSection 5: COICOP 131.

^hNo consumption flow estimated, expenditure items included at purchase price.

ⁱQuestionnaire reports market equivalent values.

^jQuestionnaire reports market equivalent values; outliers and missing imputed using prediction from hedonic regressions.

^kSome of the infrequent expenses have been kept, most notably legal expenses and insurance.

^lAnnual license fees (e.g., television, videocassette recorder, and dish antenna); annual license fee for arms.

Source: Authors’ estimates based on South Asia Harmonized Micro Dataset (accessed September 15, 2017).

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