How Covid-19 Is Impacting Your Household Budget?

Sakshi Saini

The Covid crisis has affected many households across the world, and most certainly in India. Triggered by anxiety and worry, many households have significantly changed their purchase, consumption, and savings behaviour. While experts have speculated about the patterns of behaviour shift, there has not been any systematic and rigorous study of these patterns till date. We report the results of a large-scale analysis, which clearly show evidence of behavioural shift.
The increase in fuel prices since December 2020, as the government is facing a collapse in revenue receipts, is having a direct impact on squeeze in consumption spending on discretionary items, other than on health which is currently unavoidable.
Using the Consumer Pyramids Household Survey conducted by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, 65,653 households across India were analysed over 2019 and 2020. Sophisticated mathematical models were used to analyse changes in the purchasing behaviour of each household in the sample.