LISBON: Average household expenditure in Portugal rose by 2.6 percent in 2015/16 compared to 2010/11, to €20,916, according to provisional results of the 2015/2016 Household Spending Survey drawn up by the National Statistics Institute (INE).
According to INE, expenditure on housing (31.8 percent), transport (14.7 percent) and food (14.4 percent) still accounted for the largest slice of average household expenditure, totalling 60.9 percent in 2015/2016. Health expenses accounted for 5.6 percent of household spending on average and education for 2.2 percent. By region, only the average annual expenditure in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area was higher than the average for the rest of the country, by around 14.6 percent.
“The development of annual average household expenditure, in nominal terms, corresponds to an increase of 2.6 percent,and by volume (at constant prices) to a drop of 4.2 percent, from which we conclude that, by volume, the average household expenditure fell between 2010/2011 and 2015/2016,” INE said. The provisional results of the survey also showed that households with dependent children spent 44 percent more than households with no children. On average, families with dependent children spend €658 per month more than families without children.