Costa Rica - Household final consumption expenditure (constant 2010 US$)

The latest value for Household final consumption expenditure (constant 2010 US$) in Costa Rica was 39,667,450,000 as of 2020. Over the past 60 years, the value for this indicator has fluctuated between 41,664,530,000 in 2019 and 3,371,817,000 in 1960.

Definition: Household final consumption expenditure (formerly 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. It excludes purchases of dwellings but includes imputed rent for owner-occupied dwellings. It also includes payments and fees to governments to obtain permits and licenses. Here, household consumption expenditure includes the expenditures of nonprofit institutions serving households, even when reported separately by the country. Data are in constant 2010 U.S. dollars.

Source: World Bank national accounts data, and OECD National Accounts data files.

See also:

Year Value
1960 3,371,817,000
1961 3,965,468,000
1962 3,999,183,000
1963 4,300,752,000
1964 4,524,388,000
1965 5,397,245,000
1966 5,406,563,000
1967 5,693,054,000
1968 6,040,537,000
1969 6,308,221,000
1970 6,927,794,000
1971 7,006,575,000
1972 7,330,169,000
1973 7,633,433,000
1974 8,021,407,000
1975 8,195,572,000
1976 8,537,124,000
1977 9,701,385,000
1978 10,512,060,000
1979 10,763,820,000
1980 10,568,480,000
1981 9,666,654,000
1982 8,738,735,000
1983 9,228,023,000
1984 9,896,898,000
1985 10,322,650,000
1986 10,864,800,000
1987 11,270,050,000
1988 11,512,330,000
1989 12,102,590,000
1990 12,604,080,000
1991 12,484,130,000
1992 13,687,450,000
1993 14,987,780,000
1994 15,762,420,000
1995 16,111,490,000
1996 16,390,560,000
1997 17,178,060,000
1998 17,958,000,000
1999 18,271,150,000
2000 18,447,500,000
2001 18,881,210,000
2002 19,925,440,000
2003 20,895,480,000
2004 21,429,200,000
2005 22,461,190,000
2006 23,619,920,000
2007 25,432,140,000
2008 26,945,810,000
2009 27,019,330,000
2010 28,610,890,000
2011 30,567,250,000
2012 32,784,880,000
2013 33,410,110,000
2014 35,020,630,000
2015 36,658,050,000
2016 38,034,060,000
2017 40,146,710,000
2018 40,929,230,000
2019 41,664,530,000
2020 39,667,450,000

Development Relevance: An economy's growth is measured by the change in the volume of its output or in the real incomes of its residents. The 2008 United Nations System of National Accounts (2008 SNA) offers three plausible indicators for calculating growth: the volume of gross domestic product (GDP), real gross domestic income, and real gross national income. The volume of GDP is the sum of value added, measured at constant prices, by households, government, and industries operating in the economy. GDP accounts for all domestic production, regardless of whether the income accrues to domestic or foreign institutions.

Limitations and Exceptions: Because policymakers have tended to focus on fostering the growth of output, and because data on production are easier to collect than data on spending, many countries generate their primary estimate of GDP using the production approach. Moreover, many countries do not estimate all the components of national expenditures but instead derive some of the main aggregates indirectly using GDP (based on the production approach) as the control total. Household final consumption expenditure is often estimated as a residual, by subtracting all other known expenditures from GDP. The resulting aggregate may incorporate fairly large discrepancies. When household consumption is calculated separately, many of the estimates are based on household surveys, which tend to be one-year studies with limited coverage. Thus the estimates quickly become outdated and must be supplemented by estimates using price- and quantity-based statistical procedures. Complicating the issue, in many developing countries the distinction between cash outlays for personal business and those for household use may be blurred. Informal economic activities pose a particular measurement problem, especially in developing countries, where much economic activity is unrecorded. A complete picture of the economy requires estimating household outputs produced for home use, sales in informal markets, barter exchanges, and illicit or deliberately unreported activities. The consistency and completeness of such estimates depend on the skill and methods of the compiling statisticians. Measures of growth in consumption and capital formation are subject to two kinds of inaccuracy. The first stems from the difficulty of measuring expenditures at current price levels. The second arises in deflating current price data to measure volume growth, where results depend on the relevance and reliability of the price indexes and weights used. Measuring price changes is more difficult for investment goods than for consumption goods because of the one-time nature of many investments and because the rate of technological progress in capital goods makes capturing change in quality difficult. (An example is computers - prices have fallen as quality has improved.)

Statistical Concept and Methodology: Gross domestic product (GDP) from the expenditure side is made up of household final consumption expenditure, general government final consumption expenditure, gross capital formation (private and public investment in fixed assets, changes in inventories, and net acquisitions of valuables), and net exports (exports minus imports) of goods and services. Such expenditures are recorded in purchaser prices and include net taxes on products. Deflators for household consumption are usually calculated on the basis of the consumer price index.

Aggregation method: Gap-filled total

Base Period: 2010

Periodicity: Annual

Classification

Topic: Economic Policy & Debt Indicators

Sub-Topic: National accounts