Explanatory Notes on Main Statistical Indicators

Household Final Consumption Expenditure (Private Consumption) is the market value of all goods and services, including durable products (such as cars, washing machines, and home computers), purchased by households.

GINI Index measures the extent to which the distribution of income (or, in some cases, consumption expenditure) among individuals or households within an economy deviates from a perfectly equal distribution. Thus a GINI index of zero represents perfect equality, while an index of 1 implies perfect inequality.

National Poverty Lines National poverty lines are used to make estimates of poverty consistent with the country’s specific economic and social circumstances and are not intended for international comparisons of poverty rates. The setting of national poverty lines reflects local perceptions of the level of consumption or income needed not to be poor. The perceived boundary between poor and not poor rises with the average income of a country and so does not provide a uniform measure for comparing poverty rates across countries. Nevertheless, national poverty estimates are clearly the appropriate measure for setting national policies for poverty reduction and for monitoring their results. Almost all the national poverty lines use a food bundle based on prevailing diets that attains predetermined nutritional requirements for good health and normal activity levels, plus an allowance for nonfood spending. The rise in poverty lines with average income is driven more by the gradient in the nonfood component of the poverty lines than in the food component, although there is still an appreciable share attributable to the gradient in food poverty lines.

National Poverty Rate is the percentage of the country’s population living below the national poverty line.

Urban Poverty Rate is the percentage of the urban population living below the national urban poverty line.

Rural Poverty Rate is the percentage of the rural population living below the national rural poverty line.