Private consumption has been one of the great drivers of the economy after the pandemic, and in 2021 the total monthly expenditure of households residing in the country increased $4.2 trillion compared to 2020, 16.5%, according to the information on household expenses collected through the National Survey on Quality of Life (ECV), in 2021.
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This was announced yesterday by the National Administrative Department of Statistics (Dane), who revealed that while in 2020, the year of the pandemic, families spent $25.4 billion a month, in 2020 it had been $29.7 billion per month.
This means an average household expense of $1.7 million per month for 2021, 12.1% more than in 2020, when it was $1.5 million.
“Of those $29.7 billion spent by approximately 17 million households on average per month, almost 88% of the spending of all households in the national total was generated in the urban area”, explained the director of Dane, Juan Daniel Oviedo.
It was precisely in rural areas where there was also the greatest progress in household spending, with a variation of 17.2%, which reached $26.1 billion, while in 2020 it was $22.3 billion. In the case of rural areas, families allocated $3.55 billion, compared to $3.17 billion in 2020, a variation of 11.9%.
By product groups, the highest percentage of household spending last year, According to Dane, it was concentrated in accommodation, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, with 41.4% of spending at the national level, equivalent to $12.2 billion, followed by food and non-alcoholic beverages (15.8%) , with $4.7 billion and transport (7.6%), with $2.24 billion.
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Likewise, the greatest variations were registered in education (126.6%) and recreation and culture (114.4%), with monthly expenses of $958,088 million and $644,858 million, respectively. In the analysis by departments and product groups, for 2021, it shows that the highest average monthly expenditure on food and non-alcoholic beverages was recorded in San Andrés ($523,000) and Bogotá ($417,000). In accommodation, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, in 2021, the highest average monthly expenditure was recorded in Bogotá ($1,112,000) and in San Andrés ($980,000).
LAURA LUCIA BECERRA ELEJALDE