Share of Ukrainians' food expenditures reached a historic minimum

The share of consumer total expenditures on food and non-alcoholic beverages was 47.9% in the structure of total household expenditure in 2017. This is the lowest figure since 1999, said the director of the National Scientific Center "Institute of Agrarian Economics", academician of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences Yurii Lupenko, commenting on the data recently released by the State Statistics Service of Ukraine on household characteristics in Ukraine, the press service of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences reported.

According to him, the share of food expenditures was 64.2% of total expenditures in 1999. Over the next 14 years, it has been constantly decreasing, but at the same time, it exceeded half of the household budget. In 2013 the share of food expenditures was 50.1%. In 2014 and 2015 it slightly increased to 51.9% and 53.1%, respectively. In 2016 for the first time since 199, it accounted for less than half of the costs (49.8%). In 2017 it reached a historic minimum of 47.9%.

The decrease in the share of food expenditures occurred against the backdrop of a sharp increase in the food expenditures on non-food goods and services. If in 1999, their share was 29.5%, it increased to 34.9% in 2010, and then it was more than 2/5 of household expenses (41.9%) in 2017.

At the same time, the share of food expenditures in Ukraine is much higher than in other countries, the academician noted. In particular, last year in Romania it was 26.4%, Czech Republic - 14.7%, France - 12.1%, Denmark - 10%, Great Britain - 7.2%. In the US in 2016 this figure was 6.2%, Canada - 9.3%, Australia - 9.4%, Japan - 15.7%.

This indicates a significant lag in the standard of living of the population in Ukraine from the level of the developed countries of the world and the need to accelerate economic growth. Tendencies by 2013 and the last two years indicate the possibility of improving the living standards of citizens in our country, Yurii Lupenko summed up.